
(ilass 



r. 



Book_u^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



WOODROW WILSON 




WooDROw Wilson, Age 23 

The picture was taken in 1879 when he was a Senior in Princeton 

University 



WOODROW WILSON 

THE MAN AND HIS WORK 



A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY 



BY 

HENRY JONES FORD 

PHOFESSOB OF POLITICS IN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 

AUTHOR OF "the RISE AND GROWTH OF AMERICAN POLITICS," "THE COST 

OF OUB NATIONAL GOVERNMENT," "THE SCOTCH-IRISH IN AMERICA," 

"the NATIONAL HISTOBY OF THE STATE," ETC., ETC., ETC. 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK LONDON 

1916 



.■■» 



f^-f 




7^7 



Copyright, 1916, bt 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



Printed 



APR 24 1916 



States of America 



PREFACE 

In this work I have tried to give a systematic account 
of what Woodrow Wilson has done, and of the princi- 
ples on which he acts. The latter is really the more 
important, for information without insight is .of little 
value and indeed may be a disadvantage. Besides re- 
counting events I have therefore endeavored to exhibit 
them in their bearing upon the public welfare, apart 
from considerations of party advantage; and also to 
point out their constitutional significance. These are 
the things that count in the reckonings of history ; these 
are the things that ought to determine present judg- 
ment ; these are the things I have had in mind in writing 
this biography. 

H. J. F. 

Princeton, March, 1916, 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB PAGE 

I. Birth and Education 1 

II. His Career as an Educator .... 22 

III. His Books and Essays 53 

IV. Entrance into Public Life .... 86 
V. Governor of New Jersey 122 

VI. President of the United States . . . 155 

VII. Tariff Legislation and Trust Control . 176 

VIII. Currency Reform 195 

IX. The Situation in the Philippines . .211 

X. The Mexican Question 230 

XL The War and Its Issues 245 

XII. Personal Traits 280 

XIII. A Mid-Career Appreciation . . . . 297 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



TAcma 

PAGE 



Woodrow Wilson, aged 23 ... . Frontispiece 

Woodrow Wilson, aged 41 56 

Woodrow Wilson, aged 46 114 

Woodrow Wilson, aged 54 . . .;.T«T.» • • ^^^ 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER I 

BIRTH AND EDUCATION 

IN his family descent Woodrow Wilson belongs 
to the Scotch-Irish stock whose arrival in the 
American colonies, at the time when the settle- 
ments were only a narrow coastwise strip, gave 
the first start to effective occupation of the in- 
terior. His ancestors were not, however, among 
these pioneers, but came from Ulster early in the 
nineteenth century. The War of Independence 
and the rise of American nationality had not 
severed the ties between Ulster and America, and 
emigration still flowed briskly along familiar 
channels. 

Among the emigrants in 1807 was a County 
Down youth, James Wilson, who was bound for 
Philadelphia, always a favorite port with the 
Ulster people. He obtained employment at the 
printing trade, in the office of William Duane's 

[1] 



WOODROW WILSON 



newspaper, the Aurora^ with such good pros- 
pects that he felt able to wed Anne Adams, an 
Ulster girl who had come over in the same ship 
with him. They were married November 1, 
1808, by the Rev. Dr. George C. Potts, pastor 
of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, of w^hich 
denomination they were both staunch adher- 
ents. 

With the restoration of peace after the War 
of 1812, the movement of population to the West 
was renewed with great vigor, and James Wilson 
was caught by it. He went to Pittsburg, cast 
about for an opening, and finally found one to 
his mind at Steubenville, a river town in the then 
new state of Ohio. Here he founded the Western 
Herald^ and in its office every one of his seven 
sons was taught the printing trade. In 1832, he 
founded a paper in Pittsburg, the Pennsylvania 
Advocate^ which was under the iinmediate charge 
of his eldest son. James Wilson maintained edi- 
torial supervision over both papers until his death 
in 1857. He was a justice of the peace and hence 
was commonly known as Judge Wilson. 

Woodrow Wilson's father was the youngest 

[2] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



son of Judge Wilson, Joseph Ruggles, born at 
Steubenville, February iio, 1822. In addition to 
absorbing the printing craft Hke all his brothers, 
he applied himself to scholarship, and after a 
good preparatory training at an academy in 
Steubenville, went to Jefferson College at Can- 
onsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was graduated 
in 1844 as valedictorian. After a year's experi- 
ence in teaching at Mercer, Pennsylvania, he 
turned toward the Presbyterian ministry. He at- 
tended the Western Theological Seminary at 
Allegheny, Pennsylvania, for a year, and then 
went for a year to Princeton Seminary. Al- 
though now licensed to preach, he continued for 
years thereafter to labor chiefly as an educator. 
After receiving a B.D. degree from Princeton 
Seminaiy in 1846, he taught for two years in the 
Steubenville Male Academy. While there he be- 
came acquainted with Miss Janet Woodrow, of 
Chillicothe, Ohio, a pupil of the Steubenville 
academy for girls. They were married on June 
7, 1849. Her father was the Rev. Dr. Thomas 
Woodrow, originally a Scotch Presbyterian min- 
ister, who had settled at Carhsle, England, for 

[3] 



WOODROW WILSON 



sixteen years, and Janet was one of eight chil- 
dren born to him there. Thence he removed to 
Canada and was engaged in missionary work 
there when, in 1837, he was invited to the pas- 
torate of the First Presbyterian Church of Chilli- 
cothe. Two weeks after Joseph Wilson's mar- 
riage to Doctor Woodrow's daughter, he was or- 
dained by the Presbytery of Ohio, but his occupa- 
tion still continued to be chiefly educational. For 
a year he served in Jefferson College as "profes- 
sor extraordinary" of rhetoric. From 1851 to 
1855 he was professor of chemistry and natural 
science in Hampden Sydney College, Virginia. 
In 1855 he took pastoral charge of a church at 
Staunton, and here, on December 28, 1856, there 
was born to him a son who received the family 
names, Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow 
was the third of the Wilson children, the two pre- 
ceding being girls. His only brother was born 
ten years later. 

The Wilson family did not remain long in 
Staunton but removed thence to Augusta, Geor- 
gia, while Woodrow was in his second year. The 
Rev. Mr. Wilson had a distinguished career in 

[4] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



the Presbyterian Church, South. The degree of 
D.D. was conferred upon him by Oglethorpe 
University in 1857. He was pastor of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Augusta 1858-1870; 
professor of pastoral and evangelistic theology 
in Columbia (S. C.) Theological Seminary, 1870- 
74; pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Wilmington, N. C, 1874-85, and professor of 
theology in the Southwestern Presbyterian Uni- 
versity, Clarksville, Tennessee, 1885-93. He 
served as permanent clerk of the general assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church, South, 1861-5; as 
stated clerk, 1865-1899; and as moderator, 1879. 
His wife died April 15, 1888. He retained his 
professor's chair at Clarksville until he was sev- 
enty-one, when he retired from active labor and 
went back to Columbia to reside. The last years 
of his life were spent with his eldest son at Prince- 
ton, where he died, January 21, 1903, in his 81st 
year. He was well known and liked by Princeton 
people, who noted in him the source of his son's 
personal characteristics, particularly a turn for 
anecdote, a flow of animal spirits, and sociability 
of disposition. His pictures also indicate that 

[5] 



WOODROW WILSON 



Woodrow Wilson took after his father in phy- 
sique as well as in temperament. 

Although Woodrow Wilson's childhood was 
spent in the South during the Civil War, he 
escaped its severities. Augusta, then a city of 
about fifteen thousand population, was never in 
the actual track of the war and was never occu- 
pied by the Federal troops until the Reconstruc- 
tion Period. There were times when the food 
supply became confined to a few staples, and 
there were periods v/hen war's alarms disquieted 
the elders, but there was nothing so eventful as 
to impress the mind of a child with memories of 
the struggle. He was not quite nine years old 
when the war ended, and if its incidents had any 
special bearing on his childhood it was in post- 
poning the beginning of his school days. 

His first acquaintance with literature was ob- 
tained in the home circle. The family had the 
habit, quite common among educated people in 
the old South, of having someone read aloud 
when the home circle gathered about their eve- 
ning employments. Not only the father and the 
mother, but also the boy's two sisters, often read 

[6] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



aloud, and in this way the boy heard and relished 
passages from Scott, Dickens, and other authors, 
before he knew his letters. The father was a 
sociable, instructive, and communicative compan- 
ion, and he laid well and durably the foundations 
of the boy's education before a school book was 
taken in hand. 

Woodrow began his schooling at an academy 
opened by a Confederate veteran who had re- 
turned to civil pursuits after four years of sol- 
diering. Notwithstanding its casual inception it 
was a good school, numbering distinguished men 
among its graduates. One of them was the late 
Justice Lamar of the United States Supreme 
Court. 

The Wilsons moved from Augusta to Colum- 
bia, South Carolina, in 1870, where Woodrow 
went to school at a local academy. In spite of 
liis late start he advanced so well in his studies 
that by the time he was seventeen he was ready 
to go to college. In 1873 he entered Davidson 
(N. C.) College. His career there was brief. 
He joined the Eumenean literary society, and he 
played baseball on the college team, but he did 

[7] 



WOODROW WILSON 



not finish out the year, as he fell ill and went 
home to his family, now settled in Wilmington, 
North Carolina. There Woodrow remained 
for a year, building up his constitution, 
which had been affected by an over-rapid 
physical development, and meanwhile pursuing 
studies to meet the entrance qualifications at 
Princeton, whither it had been decided that he 
should go. He matriculated there in September, 
1875. 

Although, since he has become famous, inter- 
esting anecdotal details have been collected 
about his school days, there is really little that is 
significant. At one time he had had a passionate 
fondness for sea stories, and had familiarized him- 
self with the rigging and navigation of vessels be- 
fore he had ever seen the ocean, but such en- 
thusiasms are characteristics of childhood. What 
really counted was that he acquired a taste for 
general reading, which is an appetite that once 
developed tends to become insatiable. Indul- 
gence of this taste seems to have been the sig- 
nificant feature of his Princeton career. He 
does not appear to have been prominent in stu- 

[8] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



dent activities, and was connected with compara- 
tively few organizations. In his freshman year 
he joined "The Tarheels," which had been estab- 
lished to commemorate the Mecklenburg* Declara- 
tion of Independence. His eating club was "The 
Alligators," which he joined in his sophomore 
year. In his senior year he was one of the five 
directors of the football association and acted as 
secretary of the board, but he did not play on the 
team. In those days football did not have its 
present prominence among college sports and but 
^ve games were played during the season, only 
three of which were with other college teams. At 
that time he stood five feet eleven and weighed 
one hundred and fifty-six pounds. His figure 
has not varied much since. 

His record for scholarship was sound without 
being brilliant. His general average for the four 
years was 90.3 and he stood thirty-eighth in a 
graduating class of one hundred and six. His 
highest standing in scholarship was attained dur- 
ing his sophomore year and his poorest was dur- 
ing his senior year. In philosophy, ethics, history, 
political science, and English literature he always 

[9] 



WOODROW WILSON 



received a high rating, but in scientific branches 
he received lower ratings and these brought down 
his average. The poorest showing he made was 
in astronomy, in which his senior rating was 73 
— more than passable but not distinguished. 

In view of the faculty for public speaking 
which he subsequently developed, it is rather re- 
markable that he did not figure more prominently 
as an orator. He joined Whig Hall and received 
its training in public speaking, but did not obtain 
a place upon the college debating team; and his 
only distinction in this field is the minor one of 
winning a second prize in a Hall debate during 
his sophomore year. His activities at Princeton 
were chiefly literary, and it was only in this field 
that he gained marked distinction. He was 
elected a member of the editorial board of the 
Princetonian for the term of April, 1877, to 
April, 1878, was one of two managing editors 
from November 15, 1877, to January 10, 1878, 
and w^as the sole managing editor from May, 
1878, to May, 1879. In addition to his work on 
the Princetonian, he was a contributor to the 
Nassau Literary Magazine and won a prize by 

[10] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



an essay on William, Earl Chatham, published 
in the number for October, 1878. 

The most remarkable and significant perform- 
ance of his undergraduate period was an article 
on "Cabinet Government in the United States," 
contributed to the International Review and pub- 
lished in the issue for August, 1879. That a 
youth of twenty-three should have been able to 
get into a high-grade review with an elaborate 
article on public policy was certainly a notable 
literaiy exploit. It occupies nearly eighteen solid 
pages and was evidently regarded by the editor 
as an important article — as indeed it was. It is 
marked by a breadth of knowledge, range of 
vision, and independence of thought that is rarely 
found in youth, however brilliant and gifted. Such 
an article could never have been created merely 
upon the basis of a college curriculum. It was 
the outcome of personal observation and experi- 
ence, and these are not the qualifications that one 
is apt to acquire during the undergraduate period. 
The matter becomes intelligible when it is consid- 
ered what pungent occasion for interest in public 
affairs was supplied by the impressions of his 

[11] 



WOODROW WILSON 



childliood during the Reconstruction Period in 
the South, and how that interest presided over his 
thought and reading. The reading of anyone 
who reads to much purpose is apt to seem des- 
ultor}% but that is because it seeks understanding 
rather than information and in turning to every 
quarter for light is led on into many fields. A 
determination to figure in public affairs is not a 
novel undergraduate ambition, but in this partic- 
ular case it was allied with pertinacious industry. 
T^otions of politics derived from family tradition, 
from the newspapers, and from college manuals 
were corrected and improved by assiduous read- 
ing of histories, memoirs, biographies, and period- 
ical literature — not by set rule but in pursuit of 
ideas and for the satisfaction of intellectual inter- 
ests. In form and style the International Review 
article is plainly modeled upon the pattern sup- 
plied by the English quarterlies upon which the 
youthful author was in the habit of browsing. 
Then, too, there are passages that seem to have 
been originally prepared for forensic use, and 
that may have been utilized in debate before in- 
corporation in the essay. But what distinguishes 

[12] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



this essay from the clever imitative work not in- 
frequently done by young authors is the inde- 
pendent quality of the thought. 

At that period politics and ethics were con- 
fused in the accepted manuals, as indeed they 
still are in schoolbooks on civics. The regular 
way of treating constitutional arrangements was 
to impute to them the merit of their intentions 
and to account for their failure in practice by 
the machinations of politicians or by the igno- 
rance and perversity of the electorate. Hence the 
people are always to blame when things go wrong, 
and it follows that political improvement is to 
be sought through moral improvement. In grasp- 
ing the principle that the quality of power is 
determined by the conditions under which it is 
exercised, and that good management of the pub- 
lic business is as much a matter of sound organiza- 
tion as good management of private business, 
young Wilson doubtless profited by studying 
Bagehot's works; but the particular application 
of that principle to the interpretation of Ameri- 
can conditions was wholly his own. In a treatise 
of singular force and vivacity Bagehot had 

[13] 



WOODROW WILSON 



knocked to pieces the old check and balance theory 
of the English constitution. He showed that 
its efficacy really depended upon concentration 
of authority and that the mainspring" was the or- 
ganic connection of the executive and the legis- 
lative branches. Wilson probably took from 
Bagehot his way of viewing politics from the 
standpoint of actual practice, but that is all. 

This article was so decisive in its influence upon 
Wilson's career, and it contains in embryo so 
much of his subsequent thinking and writing upon 
government, that it deserves special considera- 
tion. It begins with a reference to existing con- 
ditions. 

"Our patriotism seems of late to have been ex- 
changing its wonted tone of confident hope for 
one of desponding solicitude. Anxiety about the 
future of our institutions seems to be daily be- 
coming stronger in the minds of thoughtful 
Americans. A feeling of uneasiness is undoubt- 
edly prevalent, sometimes taking the shape of a 
fear that grave, perhaps radical, defects in our 
mode of government are militating against our 
liberty and prosperity. A marked and alarming 

[14] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



decline in statesmanship, a rule of levity and folly 
instead of wisdom and sober forethought in legis- 
lation, threaten to shake our trust not only in 
the men by whom our national policy is controlled, 
but also in the very principles upon which our 
Government rests. Both State and National leg- 
islatures are looked upon with nervous suspicion, 
and we hail an adjournment of Congress as a 
temporary immunity from danger." 

Proceeding to the consideration of causes, the 
essayist notes a disposition "to cast discredit upon 
that principle, the establishment of which has 
been regarded as America's greatest claim to po- 
litical honor — the right of every man to a voice in 
the government under which he lives." But he 
protests against the attempt to make universal 
suffrage the scapegoat of our grievances and he 
contends that the true cause lies in the defective 
organization of public authority. 

"Congress is a deliberative body in which there 
is little real deliberation; a legislature which legis- 
lates with no real discussion of its business. Our 
Government is practically carried on by irre- 
sponsible committees. Too few Americans take 

[15] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the trouble to inform themselves as to the methods 
of Congressional management; and, as a conse- 
quence, not many have perceived that almost ab- 
solute power has fallen into the hands of men 
whose irresponsibility prevents the regulation of 
their conduct by the people from whom they de- 
rive their authority." 

The parceling of legislative initiative among 
standing committees, a system peculiar to the 
United States, is due to the fact that the execu- 
tive has no means of proposing and explaining 
measures directly to Congress. 

"There is no one in Congress to speak for the 
nation. Congress is a conglomeration of inhar- 
monious elements ; a collection of men represent- 
ing each his neighborhood, each his local interest ; 
an alarmingly large proportion of its legislation 
is 'special' ; all of it is at best only a limping com- 
promise between the conflicting interests of the 
innumerable localities represented. There is no 
guiding or harmonizing power. Are the people 
in favor of a particular poHcy — what means have 
they of forcing it upon the sovereign legislature 
at Washington? None but the most imperfect. 

[16] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



If they return representatives who favor it (and 
this is the most they can do), these representa- 
tives, being under no directing power, will find a 
mutual agreement impracticable among so many, 
and will finally settle upon some policy which sat- 
isfies nobody, removes no difiiculty, and makes 
little definite or valuable provision for the fu- 
ture." 

The remedy for this situation, he urges, is to 
establish cabinet responsibility. 

"When carrying out measures thrust upon 
them by committees, administrative officers can 
throw off all sense of responsibility ; and the com- 
mittees are safe from punishment, safe even from 
censure, whatever the issue. But in administer- 
ing laws which have passed under the influence 
of their own open advocacy, ministers must shoul- 
der the responsibilities and face the consequences. 
. • . The Executive is in constant need of legis- 
lative cooperation; the legislative must be aided 
by an Executive who is in a position intelligently 
and vigorously to execute its acts. There must 
needs be, therefore, as a binding link between 
them, some body which has no power to coerce the 

[17] 



WOODROW WILSON 



one and is interested in maintaining the inde- 
pendent effectiveness of the other. Such a hnk 
is the responsible cabinet." 

After getting his A.B. degree from Princeton 
in 1879, Woodrow Wilson matriculated in the 
law school of the University of Virginia in the 
autumn of the same year. While there he ap- 
plied himself dihgently to forensic training. He 
developed his voice by joining the chapel choir 
and the glee club. He was active in the Jeff*er- 
sonian Society, and won its gold medal for ora- 
tory. The University of Virginia magazine for 
March, 1880, contains a report of an oration on 
John Bright, which Wilson delivered before the 
Jeffersonian Society; and the number for April 
contains an essay on Gladstone, signed "Atticus," 
which was Wilson's pen name in writing for col- 
lege periodicals. 

Just before Christmas, 1880, Wilson left the 
University of Virginia and returned home. Too 
great concentration upon study, and insufficient 
diversion, had brought on attacks of indigestion, 
to recover from which change of scene was neces- 
sary. During the ensuing year he remained at 

[18] ' 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



his home in Wilmington, resting, reading, exer- 
cising, and restoring his health. In May, 1882, 
he went to Atlanta to begin the practice of law. 
In that year Atlanta received a visit from a tariff 
commission created by Congress and Wilson was 
among the witnesses who appeared before it. He 
spoke in behalf of free trade, with a qualification 
which he thus stated: 

"No man with his senses about him would 
recommend perfect freedom of trade in the sense 
that there should be no duties whatever laid on 
imports. The only thing that free traders con- 
tend for is, that there shall be only so much duty 
laid as will be necessary to defray the expenses of 
the Government, reduce the public debt, and leave 
a small surplus for accumulation. But that sur- 
plus should be so small that it will not lead to 
jobbery and corruption of the worst sort." 

Wilson had not been attracted to Atlanta by 
any personal associations but simply because the 
city was growing so rapidly that it seemed to 
offer a promising field for a young practitioner. 
As matters turned out it did not give an opening 
to Wilson. He formed a partnership with an- 

[19] 



WOODROW WILSON 



i 



other 3^oung law}^er, waited for clients who did not 
come, and meanwhile went on with the studies of 
jurisprudence and politics that interested him so 
deeply. Along with those studies went an in- 
creasing conviction that they would not be favored 
by the ordinary employments of a practicing law- 
yer, and also that their continuance would not 
aid him in getting business. Such considerations 
had their final issue in a determination to quit the 
practice of law in order to become a professed 
student and educator in the field of jurispru- 
dence. Johns Hopkins University was at that 
time making a strong appeal to the South as an 
institution for postgraduate work, and he went 
into residence there in the autumn of 1883. The 
following year he was appointed to a fellowship 
in history. He spent two years at Johns Hopkins 
University, during which he finished a thesis, 
upon the acceptance of which the degree of Ph.D. 
was conferred upon him, in 1886. His career at 
Johns Hopkins was brilliantly successful. He 
made a strong impression upon his associates, 
both by his intellectual power and by his personal 
traits. He acquired the sort of reputation in 

[20] 



BIRTH AND EDUCATION 



university circles that marks one as a coming" man 
and puts one forward for academic preferment. 
The call, indeed, came before he had taken his 
doctor's degree, and he left Johns Hopkins to 
join the faculty of Bryn Mawr College in 1885. 
But such was the appreciation of the university 
authorities that they arranged to keep him still 
associated with their work through a visiting lec- 
tureship to which he was appointed in 1887. His 
two years at Johns Hopkins closed the pupillary 
stage of his career. It was rather protracted, as 
he was in his thirtieth year before he had finished 
his preparatory studies and was fairly launched in 
his career as an educator. But it soon turned out 
that the delay had not been disadvantageous, for 
he had laid down broad and solid foundations 
upon which he now rapidly erected a command- 
ing reputation. 



CHAPTER II 

HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

IN entering upon the career of an educator, 
Doctor Wilson at the same time entered upon 
a period of intense activity. It was as if the pre- 
paratory stage had been employed in assembling 
materials and in setting up apparatus whose 
products now came forth in remarkable quantity 
and variety. Lectures, public addresses, books 
and essays, closely stud the record of the ensuing 
years. These varied activities went on concur- 
rently, but for convenience of examination they 
will be dealt with best by classes, and the present 
chapter wdll be devoted to a consideration of his 
work as an educator. 

His original appointment at Bryn Mawr Col- 
lege in 1885 was that of an associate in history. 
The following year he became associate professor 
of history and political science. In 1888 he ac- 
cepted a call to the chair of history and political 
economy at Wesleyan University, and in 1890 he 

[22] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

was called to the chair of jurisprudence at Prince- 
ton University. In addition to the work of these 
chairs he delivered a lecture course at Johns Hop- 
kins University, and he was lecturer on constitu- 
tional law at the New York Law School. His 
work in history, jurisprudence, and politics was 
amply recognized by the academic world. The 
degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by 
Lake Forest College in 1887, by Tulane Univer- 
sity in 1898, by Johns Hopkins University in 
1901, and Yale University conferred upon him 
the degree of Litt.D. in 1901. He was elected 
president of Princeton University in 1902, and 
since then has received additional degrees. 

Doctor Wilson's literary activities were what 
first brought him into public notice, but those pur- 
suits were not so engrossing as to prevent him 
from giving thoughtful consideration to educa- 
tional problems. As soon as his position in the 
academic world was solidly established, addresses 
upon educational topics became a marked feature 
of his activities. In 1893 he delivered an address 
at the International Congress of Education at 
Chicago on the question of whether an antecedent 

[23] 



WOODROW WILSON 



liberal education ought to be required of students 
in law, medicine, and theology. This address af- 
fords an instance of his facility in getting at the 
heart of a subject. He began by observing: 

"We shall, I think, escape entanglements if 
we note at the very outset the two-fold aspect of 
the subject. It may be discussed from the point 
of view of the individual who is seeking profes- 
sional instruction as a means of gaining a liveli- 
hood, or from the point of view of society itself, 
which must wish to be well served by its profes- 
sional classes. The community will doubtless be 
inclined to demand more education than the in- 
dividual will be willing to tarry for before enter- 
ing on the practice of his profession. To which 
shall we give greater weight, the self-interest of 
the individual, or the self-interest of the com- 
munity?" 

The issue could hardly have been more con- 
cisely or more exactly stated, and the ground was 
cleared at once for an illuminating discussion of 
the professional value of a liberal education, 
pointing out the need and also the existing inap- 
preciation of it. He remarked : 

[24] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

"The practical side of this question is certainly 
a very serious one in this country. That there 
should be an almost absolute freedom of occupa- 
tion is a belief very intimately and tenaciously 
connected with the democratic theory of govern- 
ment, and our legislators are very slow to lay 
many restrictions upon it. Our colleges and uni- 
versities, and our law and medical and theological 
schools have seldom endowment enough to render 
them independent of popular demands and stand- 
ards. They are wholly independent, however, 
of each other, and cannot be constrained to accept 
any common scheme or standard. Even if the 
public had made up its mind very definitely on 
this subject, no means are at hand to facilitate 
concerted action. Keform must come piecemeal, 
and by example ; not all at once and by authority. 
The remedy for the present state of affairs in 
this country seems to me to lie in resolute inde- 
pendent experiment by individual institutions. 
Let leading universities and colleges that have or 
can get money enough to make them free to act 
without too much regard to outside criticism, first 
erect professional schools upon a new model of 

[25] 



WOODROW WILSON 



scholarship, and then close the doors of those 
schools to all who have not a first-rate college 
training." 

It is on those very lines that the effort to im- 
prove professional qualifications in this country 
is now being carried on. 

At the meeting of the American Bar Associa- 
tion at Saratoga Springs, August 23, 1894, Doc- 
tor Wilson delivered an address on legal educa- 
tion. This, as it was for a special audience, went 
into technical detail, but in the main it was a 
plea for breadth of preparation. Here is a typical 
paragraph : 

*'To take a definite example, in order to make 
my meaning clearer, it is a favorite idea of mine 
that commercial law should be taught along with 
the history of commerce, which will make it plain 
what gave rise to the relations of business with 
which the law deals, how the forms of commercial 
negotiation and of commercial paper came into 
existence, and how statutes and all the imperative 
regulations of the law have come after the fact, 
fixing obligations already habitually recognized, 
or at any rate ready to be put into form, and so 

[26] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 



simply serving merchants, not inventing transac- 
tions for them. One portion of our law we al- 
ready study in this way — the law of real property. 
It has retained forms and phrases which we can- 
not understand without turning back to examine 
the feudal system and the social conditions of the 
middle ages; and so we are happily obliged to 
give heed to its genesis. We ought to do the 
same for every portion of the law." 

In an article contributed to the Forum for 
September, 1894, he considered the relation of 
university training to citizenship. In this he had 
something to say on the relative values of a class- 
ical training and a scientific, and also as regards 
national ideal in the character of a university. 
Truth is without geographical boundary, but 
there can be a national selection of truth. 

*'In order to be national, a university should 
have, at the center of all its training, courses of 
instruction in that literature which contains the 
ideals of its race and all the nice proofs and subtle 
inspiration of the character, spirit, and thought of 
the nation which it serves; and, besides that, in- 
struction in the history and leading conceptions of 

[27] 



WOODROW WILSON 



those institutions which have served the nation's 
energies in the preservation of order and the main- 
tenance of just standards of civil virtue and pub- 
lic purpose. These should constitute the common 
training of all its students, as the only means of 
schooling their spirits for their common life as 
citizens. For the rest, they might be free to 
choose what they would learn. . . . 

"The world in which we live is troubled by 
many voices, seeking to proclaim righteousness 
and judgment to come; but they disturb without 

I instructing us. . . . There is no corrective for it 
all like a wide acquaintance with the best books 

'■ that men have written, joined with a knowledge 
of the institutions men have made trial of in the 
past ; and for each nation there is its own record 
of mental experience and political experiment. 
Such a record always sobers those who read it. 
It also steadies the nerves. If all educated knew 
it, it would be as if they had had a revelation. 
They could stand together and govern, with open 
eyes and the gift of tongues which other men 
could understand. Here is like wild talk and 
headlong passion for reform in the past, — ^here in 

[28] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 



the books, — with all the motives that underlay the 
perilous utterance now laid bare: these are not 
new terrors and excitements. Neither need the 
wisdom be new, nor the humanity, by which they 
shall be moderated and turned to righteous ends. 
There is old experience in these matters, or rather 
in these states of mind. It is no new thing to 
have economic problems and dream dreams of ro- 
mantic and adventurous social reconstruction. 
And so it is out of books that we can get our 
means and our self-possession for a sane and sys- 
tematic criticism of life." 

The concluding paragraph of this essay is par- 
ticularly interesting in that it foreshadowed a re- 
form which he eventually had the opportunity of 
making : 

"The serious practical question is. How are all 
the men of a university to be made to read Eng- 
lish literature widely and intelligently, as this 
plan presupposes ? For it is reading, not set lec- 
tures, that will prepare a soil for culture : the in- 
side of books, and not talk about them; though 
there must be the latter also, to serve as a chart 
and guide to the reading. The difficulty is not in 

[29] 



WOODROW WILSON 



reality very great. A considerable number of 
young tutors, serving their novitiate for full uni- 
versity appointments, might easily enough effect 
an organization of the men that would secure the 
reading. Taking them in groups of manageable 
numbers, suggesting the reading of each group, 
and by frequent interviews and quizzes seeing 
that it was actually done, explaining and stimu- 
lating as best they might by the way, they could 
not only get the required tasks performed, but 
relieve them of the hateful appearance of being 
tasks, and cheer and enrich the whole life of the 
university." 

Here we have the essential character of the 
Princeton preceptorial system, stated by Doctor 
Wilson eight years before his election as president 
of the university put him in a position to introduce 
that system. 

In his address on "Princeton in the Nation's 
Service," delivered at the Princeton sesquicenten- 
nial celebration, October 21, 1896, he went into 
the matter of educational ideals with an emphasis 
that resounded in current literature. It was pub- 
lished in full in the Forum for December, 1896, 

[30] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 



but liberal extracts appeared in Science^ the Re- 
view of Reviews, Electrical Engineering, and the 
Popular Science Monthly, as well as in the news- 
paper press. There had been a strong tendency 
to make science the leading intellectual discipline, 
even to the extent of superseding the older cul- 
tural apparatus. Doctor Wilson took advantage 
of a conspicuous occasion to utter a criticism 
upon this tendency and a warning against its 
perils. He said: 

"I have no laboratory but the world of books 
and men in which I live ; but I am much mistaken 
if the scientific spirit of the age is not doing us a 
disservice, working in us a certain great degen- 
eracy. Science has bred in us a spirit of experi- 
ment and a contempt for the past. It has made 
us credulous of quick improvement, hopeful of 
discovering panaceas, confident of success in every 
new thing. ... It has given us agnosticism in 
the realm of philosophy, scientific anarchism in 
the field of politics. . . . 

"Let me say once more, this is not the fault of 
the scientist ; he has done his work with an intelli- 
gence and success which cannot be too much ad- 

[31] 



WOODROW WILSON 



mired. It Is the work of the noxious, intoxicating 
gas which has somehow got into the lungs of the 
rest of us from out the crevices of his workshop — 
a gas, it would seem, which forms only in the out- 
er air, and where men do not know the right use 
of their lungs. I should tremble to see social re- 
form led by men who had breathed it; I should 
fear nothing better than utter destruction from a 
revolution conceived and led in the scientific 
spirit. Science has not changed the laws of social 
growth and betterment. Science has not changed 
the nature of society, has not made history a whit 
easier to understand, human nature a whit easier 
to reform. It has won for us a great liberty in 
the physical world, a liberty from superstitious 
fear and from disease, a freedom to use nature as 
a familiar servant; but it has not freed us from 
ourselves. It has not purged us of passion or dis- 
posed us to virtue. It has not made us less covet- 
ous or less ambitious or less self-indulgent. On 
the contrary, it may be suspected of having en- 
hanced our passions, by making wealth so quick to 
come, so fickle to stay. It has wrought such in- 
stant, incredible improvement in all the physical 

[32] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 



setting of our life, that we have grown the more 
impatient of the unreformed condition of the 
part it has not touched or bettered, and we want 
to get at our spirits and reconstruct them in like 
radical fashion by like processes of experiment. 
We-have broken with the past and have come into 
a new world. 

"Can anyone wonder, then, that I ask for the 
old drill, the old memory of times gone by, the 
old schooling in precedent and tradition, the old 
keeping of faith with the past, as a preparation 
for leadership in days of social change?" 

On October 13, 1899, he delivered an address 
at Cambridge, Massachusetts, before the New 
England Association of Colleges and Prepara- 
tory Schools on "Spurious versus Real Patriotism 
in Education." The point he urged was that 
while patriotism expresses itself in sentiment, it 
does not consist of sentiment but is a principle of 
devotion to the true interests of its object. 

"We have forgotten the very principle of our 
origin if we have forgotten how to object, how to 
resist, how to agitate, how to pull down and build 
up, even to the extent of revolutionary practices 

[33] 



WOODROW WILSON 



if it be necessary, to readjust matters. I have 
forgotten my history if that be not true history. 
When I see schoolrooms full of children, going 
through genuflections to the flag of the United 
States, I am willing to bend the knee if I be per- 
mitted to understand what history has written 
upon the folds of that flag. If you will teach the 
children what the flag stands for, I am willing 
that they should go on both knees to it. But 
they will get up with opinions of their own ; they 
will not get up with the opinions of those who are 
instructing them. They will get up critical. 
They will get up determined to have opinions of 
their own. They will know that this is a flag of 
liberty of opinion, as well as of political liberty in 
questions of organization." 

The address went on to consider to what extent 
and by what means patriotism should be taught 
in the schools and dwelt upon the necessity of 
instructed opinion and critical judgment, in the 
teacher, in respect of our history and our institu- 
tions. 

His inaugural address as president of Prince- 
ton University was delivered on October 25, 1902. 

[34] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 



In this he made a mature and comprehensive 
statement of educational views that he had formed 
and expressed through his observation and ex- 
perience as a student and as a college professor. 
During those years there had been a marked set 
of educational opinion against the old classical 
discipline and in favor of the substitution of scien- 
tific branches. At the same time there was a 
tendency toward granting entire freedom of 
choice in university studies, upon the theory that 
any branch of knowledge pursued to its depths 
would involve all knowledge. Doctor Wilson was 
an opponent of these tendencies and their attend- 
ant relaxation of standards. These tendencies 
are now stayed and in this respect Princeton's 
example has been very influential. When Doctor 
Wilson became president of the university the 
problem was to maintain the old standards and 
yet broaden the curriculum so as to meet the needs 
of a modern university. Although the university 
is for the few rather than for the many, it has 
a democratic function to perform in supplying 
organizers and leaders for a democratic govern- 
ment. Speaking of this, he said: 

[35] 



WOODROW WILSON 



"The college is not for the majority who carry 
forward the common labor of the world, nor even 
for those who work at the skilled handicrafts 
which multiply the conveniences and the luxuries 
of the complex modern life. It is for the minority 
who plan, who conceive, who superintend, who 
mediate between group and group, and who 
must see the wide stage as a whole. Democratic 
nations must be served in this wise no less than 
those whose leaders are chosen by birth and privi- 
lege ; and the college is no less democratic because 
it is for those who play a special part. . . . 

"There are two ways of preparing a young man 
for his life work. One is to give him the skill and 
special knowledge which shall make a good tool, 
an excellent bread-winning tool, of him; and for 
thousands of young men that way must be fol- 
lowed. It is a good way. It is honorable. It is 
indispensable. But it is not for the college, and 
it never can be. The college should seek to make 
the men whom it receives something more than 
excellent servants of a trade or skilled practi- 
tioners of a profession. It should give them elas- 
ticity of faculty and breadth of vision, so that 

[36] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

they shall have a surplus of mind to expend, not 
upon their profession only, for its hberalization 
and enlargement, but also upon the broader in- 
terests which lie about them, in the spheres in 
which they are to be, not breadwinners merely, 
but citizens as well, and in their own hearts, where 
they are to grow to the stature of real nobility. 
It is this free capital of mind the world most 
stands in need of, — this free capital that awaits 
investment in undertakings, spiritual as well as 
material, which advance the race and help all 
men to a better life." 

In considering the relative value of different 
branches of study, he held that the classical lan- 
guages of antiquity were still unsurpassed as a 
discipline for the mind. 

"But they are disciplinary only because of their 
definiteness and their established method; and 
they take their determinateness from their age 
and perfection. It is their age and completeness 
that render them so serviceable and so suitable for 
the first processes of education. By this means 
the boy is informed of the bodies of knowledge 
which are not experimental but settled, definitive, 

[37] 



WOODROW WILSON 



fundamental. This is the stock upon which time 
out of mind all the thoughtful world has traded. 
These have been food of the mind for long gener- 
ations. . . . 

* 'Drill in mathematics stands in the same 
category with familiar knowledge of the thought 
and speech of classical antiquity, because in them 
also we get the life-long accepted discipline of 
the race, the processes of pure reasoning which 
lie at once at the basis of science and at the basis 
of philosophy, grounded upon observation and 
physical fact and yet abstract and of the very 
stuff of the essential processes of the mind, a 
bridge between reason and nature. Here, too, as 
in the classics, is a definitive body of knowledge 
and of reason, a discipline which has been made 
test of through long generations, a method of 
thought which has in all ages steadied, perfected, 
enlarged, strengthened, and given precision to 
the powers of the mind. Mathematical drill is an 
introduction of the boy's mind to the most defi- 
nitely settled rational experience of the world." 

The old discipline of Greek, Latin, mathemat- 
ics, and English no longer comprises the f unda- 

[38] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

mental studies. Science is indispensable to a 
liberal education. But special developments of 
science, still involved in controversy, do not con- 
stitute the proper subject matter of general edu- 
cation. Undoubtedly the fundamental sciences 
are physics, chemistry, and biology, and they are 
entitled to a place at the foundation of liberal 
training. Geology and astronomy also have 
their place in general culture, in their exhibition 
of nature in the mass and system of her structure. 
"And when we have added to these the mani- 
fold discipline of philosophy, the indispensable 
instructions of history, and the enlightenments of 
economic and political study, and to these the 
modern languages which are the tools of scholar- 
ship, we stand confused. How are we to marshal 
this host of studies within a common plan which 
shall not put the pupil out of breath. No doubt 
we must make choice among them, and suffer the 
pupil himself to make choice. But the choice that 
we make must be the chief choice, the choice the 
pupil makes the subordinate choice. . . . We 
must supply the synthesis and must see to it that, 
whatever group of studies the student selects, it 

[39] 



WOODROW WILSON 



shall at least represent the round whole, contain 
all the elements of modern knowledge, and be 
itself a complete circle of general subjects." 

The principles of educational control stated 
in this address have deeply influenced American 
university methods. At the time they were for- 
mulated they antagonized current tendencies; 
since then there has been a reaction towards the 
system of modified choice exemplified by Prince- 
ton. A revision of studies took place during Doc- 
tor Wilson's presidency, which, while retaining 
the old standards, enlarged the curriculum in 
adaptation to those standards. To obtain the A.B. 
degree, the study of Greek is still essential, which 
in these times has become rather a Princeton 
peculiarity; but there is a Litt.B. degree which 
does not call for Greek, and is largely taken by 
students for whose purposes Latin is sufficient. 
The studies pursued in the first two years are 
embraced in prescribed courses ; but when pupils 
become upperclassmen they obtain opportunities 
of individual election. They can choose a depart- 
ment in which to pursue a majority of the re- 
quired courses, and they can complete the number 

[40] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 



by making their own choice of courses in other 
departments. This system of group electives is 
now quite general in American universities. It 
would be too much to say that Princeton origi- 
nated it ; but it is quite within bounds to say that 
the example of Princeton was widely influential 
in making it systematic. 

On November 29, 1902, less than a month after 
he stated his educational ideals in assuming the 
presidency of Princeton, Doctor Wilson delivered 
an address before the Commercial Club of Chi- 
cago, on the "Relation of University Education 
to Commerce." The address touched upon the 
topics of the day, and it had the sparkle and allu- 
siveness of extemporaneous utterance. He re- 
marked : 

*T have already said that it does not seem to 
me any part of a university function to give men 
a business education, to teach them, that is to 
say, the methods of the business office. There is 
no touch of the university in that. It always must 
do something very different from that. I have 
no doubt that technical schools of various sorts are 
extremely serviceable, but technical schools of the 

[41] 



WOODROW WILSON 



narrow sort do not seem to me appropriate parts 
of a university: We are apt to forget, gentlemen, 
that the university is not intended for everybody. 
The principle of power is a principle of differen- 
tiation. We are in danger just now of supposing 
that a university must include every kind of edu- 
cation, and we are apt to lose distinctions of 
thought and efficiency of result by confusing one 
sort of education with another. There must be 
various sorts of education, and when I say that 
the field of the universit}^ is set apart and pe- 
culiar, I am not meaning to imply that it is better, 
that it is more noble, that it is more dignified than 
other fields of education. I believe — as every 
man born on this soil, I take it, must believe — 
that the dignity of toil with the hands, provided | 
the heart goes into the work, provided the con- 
science gets translated into the product, is enough 
to dignify any man and give him a touch of nobil- 
ity. There is no comparison in point of nobility; 
there ought to be no attempt to compare, in point 
of nobility of work, the work of the head and the 
work of the hands. It is not a question of nobil- 
ity; it is a question of division of labor, of the 

[42] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 



separation of functions. It is a question of that 
differentiation upon which the efficiency of the 
modern world depends. . . . And the idea of a 
university education is different from the idea of 
a technical education. It seems to me that the 
thing that the university must do is to make mxn 
acquainted with the world intellectually, imagina- 
tively." 

An idea which formed in Doctor Wilson's mind 
with increasing power during his experience as 
student and teacher w^as the need of a more inti- 
mate and effectual contact between teacher and 
pupil than is afforded by lecture courses. The 
established method was the delivery of lectures 
upon which the students took notes. The chief 
function of the lecture was therefore to impart 
information, and to give the information in suffi- 
cient detail and with precise statement it was gen- 
erally the case that lectures would be written out 
and read. This indeed has been the general prac- 
tice of the academic world, fortified in the United 
States by the practice of German universities to 
which hosts of American students have resorted, 
deriving thence laboratory and classroom meth- 

[43] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ods for use at home. But unless one is specially 
interested in the subject nothing is harder than 
to give one's attention to what is read. The 
thought wanders and students physically present 
are nevertheless far away in the action of their 
minds. A practical outcome of the situation was 
that in numerous cases little or no attention would 
be given to the subject until the examinations 
were at hand, and then there would be a brisk 
traffic in lecture notes and syllabi among the 
students. Mere cramming to pass examinations 
did not secure that familiarity with the subject 
which Doctor Wilson had in view as an educa- 
tional process, and one of the first matters he took 
in hand was to make conferences rather than lec- 
tures the chief informational agency. On De- 
cember 13, 1902, he outlined his views to a meet- 
ing of Princeton alumni in New York City. 

He spoke extemporaneously, and at times en- 
gaged in colloquy, so that the affair was rather 
more of a free conference than a formal address. 
In its course, he remarked : 

"There are different sorts of subjects in a cur- 
riculum, let me remind you; there are drill sub- 

[M] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

jects, which I suppose are mild forms of torture, 
but to which every man must submit. So far as 
my own experience is concerned, the natural car- 
nal man never desires to learn mathematics. We 
know by a knowledge of the history of the race 
that it is necessary by painful processes of drill 
to insert mathematics into a man's constitution; 
he cannot be left to get up mathematics for him- 
self because he cannot do it. There are some drill 
subjects which are just as necessary as measles 
in order to make a man a grown-up person; he 
must have gone through those things in order to 
qualify himself for the experiences of life; he 
must have crucified his will and got up things 
which he did not intend to get up and reluctantly 
was compelled to get up. That I believe is neces- 
sary for the salvation of his soul. But there are 
other subjects, those subjects which are out of the 
field of the ordinary school curriculum and which 
I may perhaps be permitted to say are more char- 
acteristic in their kind of the university study. 
They are what I call the reading subjects, like 
philosophy, like literature, like law, like history. 
In those subjects it is futile to try to instruct men 

[45] 



WOODROW WILSON 



by mere classroom methods. The only way to 
instruct them is to provide a certain number of 
men sufficiently qualified as instructors, as schol- 
ars, who will be the companions and coaches and 
guides of the men's reading. . . . 

"Gentlemen, if we could get a body of such 
tutors at Princeton we could transform the place 
from a place where there are youngsters doing 
tasks to a place where there are men doing think- 
ing, men who are conversing about the things of 
thought, men who are eager and interested in the 
things of thought ; we know that, because we have 
done it on a small scale. Wherever you have a 
small class and they can be intimately associated 
with their chief in the study of an interesting sub- 
ject, they catch the infection of the subject; but 
where they are in big classes and simply hear a 
man lecture two or three times a week, they can- 
not catch the infection of anything, except it may 
be the voice and enthusiasm of the lecturer him- 
self. This is the way in which to transform the 
place." 

This describes the purpose of the preceptorial | 
system introduced during Doctor Wilson's ad- 

[46] 



4 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

ministration at Princeton. Its effects have been 
marked in raising the standards of scholarship. 
It is impossible for a pupil to escape the educa- 
tional influence of the system, for every week he 
must meet a preceptor for conference upon as- 
signed reading in the subject of the course. If 
he does not attend such conferences he is debarred 
from examinations; if he does attend he is sub- 
ject to a steady and regular informational pro- 
cess. The term grade which a pupil obtains from 
his attendance on these conferences and the part 
he takes in them, counts for more in his standing 
than examination results. The system reacts 
upon the character of the lectures. As they have 
become of minor importance as a means of im- 
parting information, they have tended to become 
rather a source of inspiration and enlightenment. 
Instead of a read dissertation, they have become 
familiar talks to the students, calling attention to 
the bearing and significance of particular phases 
of the subject, for details upon which they must 
have recourse to their textbooks. Doctor Wilson 
himself lectured to classes of juniors on constitu- 
tional government and jurisprudence. He pre- 

[47] 



WOODROW WILSON 



pared a printed syllabus for the use of his stu- 
dents, and he prescribed a course of reading on 
which they had weekly conferences with their pre- 
ceptors. His own lectures were expository, mak- 
ing frequent use of illustrative instances drawn 
from current events. In an address to a gather- 
ing of school teachers, he once remarked: "It is 
one of the privileges of a teacher, I think, to be 
bored, himself, with his own lecture and to allow 
himself to depart once and again from the course 
of the lecture in order to tell a story which has 
more or less connection with what he is saying." 
Dr. Wilson often availed himself of that privilege. 
His students were too intent upon listening to 
him to give attention to making notes, and in 
general there has been a marked decline in the 
practice of taking lecture notes since the precep- 
torial system has been introduced. 

On November 29, 1907, Doctor Wilson deliv- 
ered an address before the Association of Col- 
leges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle 
States and Maryland, in which he discussed the 
relations of school and college and gave sharp ex- 
pression to his ideas of the bad effects of the 

[48] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

withdrawal of systematic control from higher edu- 
cation. He remarked: 

"We have just passed through a period in 
education when everything seemed in process of 
dissolution, when all standards were removed, 
when there was a universal dispersion of every 
established conception; w^hen men did not hold 
themselves to plans, but opened the whole field, 
as if you drew a river out of its course and in- 
vited it to spread abroad over the countryside. 
. . . You know perfectly well what the result has 
been ; you know that the children of the past two 
or three decades in our schools have not been 
educated. You know that the pupils in the col- 
leges in the last several decades have not been 
educated. You know that with all our teaching 
we train nobody ; you know that with all our in- 
structing we educate nobody. . . . 

*'I wish to state these things, if need be, in an 
extravagant form, in order to have you realize 
that we are upon the eve of a period of reconstruc- 
tion. We are upon the eve of a period when we 
are going to set up standards. We are upon the 
eve of a period of synthesis, when tired of this 

[49] 



WOODROW WILSON 



dispersion and standardless analysis, we are 
going to put things together into something like 
a connected and thought-out scheme of en- 
deavor." 

This address, which was a long and thoughtful 
consideration of the subject, urged the point that 
after all the chief object of education is discipline. 
]\Iany other citations might be made, as his ad- 
dresses to educational associations were numer- 
ous, but sufficient has been given to indicate his 
views. Notice, however, should not be omitted 
of the fact that he regarded religion as an integral 
part of a sound educational system, an affirma- 
tion which is a marked Princeton characteristic. 
References to this matter frequently occurred in 
his public addresses and in some instances it con- 
stituted the main theme. On October 13, 1904, 
he delivered an address to the fortieth annual con- 
vention of the Pennsylvania State Sabbath School 
Association, at Pittsburg, on "The Young People 
and the Church." In it he said that no knowledge 
is of any particular consequence in this world 
unless it is incarnate. All the wise saws and pru- 
dent maxims and pieces of information that we 

[50] 



HIS CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR 

supply to the generation coming' on are of no 
consequence whatever in themselves unless they 
get into the blood and are transmuted. 

"And so of religion. Religion is communica- 
ble, I verily believe, aside from the sacred oper- 
ations of the Holy Spirit, only by example. . . . 
When we say that the way to get young people 
into the church is to make the church interesting, 
I am afraid we too often mean that the w^ay to do 
it is to make it entertaining. Did you ever know 
the most excellent concert, or series of concerts, 
to be the means of revolutionizing a life? Did 
you ever know any amount of entertainment to 
go further than hold for the hour that it lasted? 
If you mean to draw young people by entertain- 
ment there is only one excuse for it, and that is 
to follow up the entertainment with something 
that is not entertaining, but which grips the heart 
like the touch of a hand. I dare say that there 
is some excuse for alluring persons to a place 
where good will be done them, but I think it 
would be a good deal franker not to allure them. 
I think it would be a great deal better simply to 
let them understand that that is the place where 

[51] 



WOODROW WILSON 



life is dispensed, and that if they want hfe they 
must come to that place." 

Doctor Wilson's baccalaureate address to the 
graduating class, June 9, 1907, was a sermon on 
the text: "And be not conformed to this world: 
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
mind, that ye may prove what is the good, and 
acceptable, and perfect will of God." Hom. xii:2. 

The theme exhibited in various aspects in this 
address was that all individual human life, when 
rightly understood and conducted, is a struggle 
against yielding in weak accommodation to the 
changeful, temporary, ephemeral things about us, 
in order that we may catch that permanent, au- 
thentic tone of Hfe which is the voice of the Spirit 
of God. This sermon has been published as a 
booldet, entitled "The Free Life." 



CHAPTER III 

HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 

THE Princeton University library has a bib- 
liography of the published writings and ad- 
dresses of Woodrow Wilson from the time he en- 
tered Princeton as a student to the time he left 
it to become governor of New Jersey. This bibli- 
ography is admitted to be incomplete, but it con- 
tains seventy-five entries for the twenty-five years 
intervening between his matriculation as a stu- 
dent and his installation in the presidency of the 
University. His career as a man of letters falls 
almost wholly within that period. During it all 
his books, with one exception, were written. 

In examining this literary output one is im- 
pressed with the evidence it affords of sustained 
industry'- and concentration of purpose. The in- 
tellectual interests which it reveals extend in un- 
broken continuity from his undergraduate days. 
When he gave up the practice of law to continue 
his studies in history and jurisprudence his 

[53] 



WOODROW WILSON 



literary activities centered about the same sub- 
ject that he had discussed in his International 
Review article. In January, 1884, his essay on 
"Committee or Cabinet Government," in which 
there was a detailed examination of Congressional 
procedure, appeared in the Overland MontJdy. 
Both these articles were preliminary studies lead- 
ing up to a systematic treatise published in 1885, 
with the title "Congressional Government: A 
Study in American Politics." It was submitted 
to Johns Hopkins University as the thesis re- 
quired among the conditions on which the Ph.D. 
degree w^as granted, but it differed widely from 
the ordinary thesis, which rarely makes its way 
out of academic records into the general field of 
literature, in that it took rank at once as a political 
classic. It was issued in book form by a publish- 
ing house and passed rapidly through numerous 
editions, a new one being called for nearly every 
year. Up to 1912 twenty-four impressions of 
this work had been printed. In American litera- 
ture it occupies a place like that of Bagehot's trea- 
tise in English literature. In vivacity and in- 
cisiveness of style it equals Bagehot's work and 

[54] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



perhaps excels it in literary charm. In structure 
there is no basis of comparison as the American 
publicist had to deal with a peculiar set of prob- 
lems which never were presented to Bagehot, and 
the only point on which there is identity of method 
is that the treatment goes directly to the realities 
of the case. The traditional treatment was to 
start with things as they ought to be, and to view 
the Constitution from the standpoint of theory. 
The new treatment was to start with things as 
they really are, and to view the Constitution from 
the standpoint of practice. The conventional 
method w^as to begin with an account of the con- 
stitutional scheme as inferable from the intentions 
of the Fathers. Wilson began with an examina- 
tion of the way in which the public business is 
actually transacted. The book is an analysis of 
legislative procedure, exhibiting the part in it 
taken respectively by the House of Representa- 
tives, the Senate, and the Executive. A novel fea- 
ture of the work was the disclosure of the secret 
springs of action coiled in the system of standing 
committees, now for the first time shown to be the 
principal working parts of the actual Constitu- 

[55] 



WOODROW WILSON 



tion, although altogether ignored by traditional 
constitutional theorJ^ 

The publication of "Congressional Govern- 
ment" coincides with the beginning of Woodrow 
Wilson's career as an educator. He now became 
busy preparing lecture courses, organizing 
classes, and engaging in the varied activities that 
so easily consume a college professor's time unless 
he seizes and retains mastery over his inclinations. 
A seductive solution of the problem to a man of 
scholarly tastes is to become a reticent, self- 
absorbed solitary. But affability was hereditary 
with Wilson, and by birth and training he had 
the cordiality of manner that is a Southern trait. 
He was much too fond of social intercourse ever 
to become a scholastic recluse, and in his case the 
problem was solved by such an economical man- 
agement of his time that while he seemed to have 
plenty of leisure he was able to give steady ap- . 
plication to his literary tasks. He had become the 
master-workman who does not lose time by false 
motions but makes all his strokes tell. His sus- 
tained interest in the problems of American gov- 
ernment was evinced by a series of magazine ar- 

[56] 




WooDRow Wilson, Age 41 

The picture was taken in 1897 while he was a professor in Princeton 

University 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



tides, every year adding to the number. Some 
of these exhibited new facets of the particular 
theme to which his thought had been constant 
since his undergraduate days, presenting the same 
order of thought with fresh brilHancy of state- 
ment. These essaj^s eventually supplied most of 
the matter of two books : "An Old JMaster and 
Other Pohtical Essays," pubhshed in 1893, and 
"Mere Literature," published in 1896. 

Concurrently with this literary output he was 
making close studies of political structure and 
function in various countries, originally for use in 
his lectures upon political science. Their first 
literary form was that of a syllabus for classroom 
use, but this was gradually expanded into a text- 
book upon government, first published in 1889, 
with the title, "The State : Elements of Historical 
and Practical Politics." This is a comprehensive 
manual, tracing government to its origins and 
describing its ancient, medieval, and modern 
types. The actual organization of public autKor- 
ity is its theme, and in dealing with the modern 
period a detailed account is given of the mechan- 
ism of government in France, Germany, Switzer- 

[57] 



WOODROW WILSON 



land, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Eng- 
land, and the United States. It was a pioneer 
work of this character and it established a de- 
partment of political science to which many im- 
portant contributions, facilitating the study of 
constitutional documents and actual govern- 
mental procedure, have since been made. The 
study of political science has been revolutionized 
by the historical method, and Wilson's manual 
was the first systematic embodiment of that 
method for school use in America. The work was 
revised and largely rewritten in 1898, and a new 
edition has been called for nearly every year. 
The section devoted to the United States has been 
separately issued as a school manual, and this tooj 
has passed through numerous editions. 

Although "The State" is a voluminous work, 
covering a great tract of history, one may discern 
an organic connection between it and that political! 
essay of his senior year. Viewing them as literary] 
products the difference is great, but it is like the! 
difference between the spreading oak and the| 
little acorn in which the potentiality of that! 
growth was once infolded. The plan of the man-] 

[58] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



ual precluded anything like advocacy. Its pur- 
pose was wholly informative. But the section on 
''Relations of the Executive to Congress" gave 
an occasion for the expression of his views, put 
so concisely that it may be quoted in its entirety : 

"The only provisions contained in the Constitu- 
tion concerning the relation of the President to 
Congress are these : That 'he shall, from time to 
time, give to the Congress information of the 
state of the Union, and recommend to their con- 
sideration such measures as he shall judge neces- 
sary and expedient' ; and that 'he may, on extraor- 
dinary occasions, convene both houses, or either 
of them,' in extra sessions, 'and, in case of dis- 
agreement between them, with respect to the time 
of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such 
time as he shall think proper.' His power to in- 
form Congress concerning the state of the Union 
and to recommend to it the passage of measures 
is exercised only in the sending of annual and 
special written 'messages.' 

"Washington and John Adams interpreted the 
clause to mean that they might address Congress 
in person, as the sovereign in England may do; 

[59] 



WOODROW WILSON 



their annual communications to Congress were 
spoken addresses. But Jefferson, the third Pres- 
ident, being an ineffective speaker, this habit was 
discontinued and the fashion of written messages 
was inaugurated and firmly established. Pos- 
sibly, had the President not so closed the matter 
against new adjustments, this clause of the Con- 
stitution might legitimately have been made the 
foundation for a much more habitual and in- 
formal, and yet at the same time much more pub- 
lic and responsible, interchange of opinion be- 
tween the Executive and Congress. Having been 
interpreted, however, to exclude the President 
from any but the most formal and ineffectual ut- 
terance of perfunctory advice, our federal execu- 
tive and legislature have been shut off from 
cooperation and mutual confidence to an extent 
to which no other modern system furnishes a 
parallel. In all other modern governments the 
heads of the administrative departments are given 
the right to sit in the legislative body and to 
take part in its proceedings. The legislature and 
executive are thus associated in such a way that 
the ministers of state can lead the houses without 

[60] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



dictating to them, and the ministers themselves 
be controlled without being misunderstood, — in 
such a way that the two parts of the government 
which should be most closely coordinated, the 
part, namely, by which the laws are made and 
the part by which the laws are executed, may be 
kept in close harmony and intimate cooperation, 
with the result of giving coherence to the action 
of the one and energy to the action of the other." 

By this time Wilson had made for himself such 
an assured position in literature that his services 
were much in request by editors, and he produced 
a number of historical works in response to over- 
tures. He prepared the third and concluding 
volume of a series entitled "Epochs of American 
History." It covered the period 1829-1889, with 
the title, ^'Division and Reunion." The first edi- 
tion was issued in March, 1893, and another edi- 
tion was gotten out in May. Three editions were 
issued the following year, and up to 1912 twenty- 
five editions had been issued. The work has been 
several times revised and remains in steady de- 
mand. 

His historical labors were carried on concur- 

[61] 



WOODROW WILSON 



1 

I 



rently with the producing of magazine and re- 
view articles and the making of occasional public 
addresses. An address on the course of Ameri- 
can history, delivered at the semicentennial anni- 
versary of the New Jersey Historical Society, 
Newark, New Jersey, May 16, 1895, made a pro- 
found impression upon its hearers and acquired 
prompt celebrity. The address is so closely knit, 
its parts so interdependent, that it is impossible 
to give a fair idea of it by extracts, and yet it is | 
too important to be passed by with merely general 
notice. The address pointed out that the con- 
ventional method of writing American history 
was to treat it as an expansion of New England 
history. This view gives so fine an unity to our 
national epic that one almost wishes it were true. 
But perhaps, after all, the real truth is more in- 
teresting. 

"What, in fact, has been the course of Ameri- 
can history? How is it to be distinguished from 
European history? What features has it of its i 
own, which give it its distinctive plan and move- 
ment? We have suffered, it is to be feared, a 
very serious limitation of view until recent years 

[62] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



by having all our history written in the East. It 
has smacked strongly of a local flavor. It has 
concerned itself too strongly with the origins and 
Old- World derivations of our story. Our his- 
torians have made their march from the sea with 
their heads over shoulder, their gaze always back- 
ward upon the landing places and homes of the 
first settlers. In spite of the steady immigra- 
tion, with its persistent tide of foreign blood, they 
have chosen to speak often and to think always of 
our people as sprung after all from a common 
stock, bearing a family likeness in every branch, 
and following all the while old, familiar family 
ways. The view is the more misleading because 
it is so large a part of the truth without being all 
of it. The common British stock did first make 
the country, and has always set the pace. There 
were common institutions up and down the coast ; 
and these had formed and hardened for a per- 
sistent growth before the great westward migra- 
tion began which was to reshape and modify every 
element of our life. 

"But, the beginnings once safely made, change 
set in apace. . . . Until they had turned their 

[63] 



WOODROW WILSON 



backs once for all upon the sea; until they saw 
our western borders cleared of the French ; until 
the mountain passes had grown familiar, and the 
lands beyond had become the central and constant 
theme of their hope, the goal and dream of their 
young men, they did not become an American 
people. . . . The 'West' is the great word of 
our history. The 'Westerner' has been the type 
and master of our American life." 

The address closed with a detailed appreciation 
of the character of Abraham Lincoln. "You have 
in him the type and flower of our growth. It is as 
if Nature had made a typical American and then 
added with liberal hand the royal quality of gen- 
ius, to show us what the type could be." 

A long extract from this address was included 
in the anthology of ''Modern Eloquence," edited 
by the then Speaker Reed; and a long extract 
was included in the "Library of the World's Best 
Literature," edited by Charles Dudley Warner, 
a compilation that includes other extracts from 
Wilson's essays and speeches. 

In the same year in which this notable address 
was made, Wilson began a series of studies of 

[64] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



Washing'ton's career, magazine publication be- 
ginning in January, 1896. This series was illus- 
trated by Howard Pyle, Harry Fenn, and others, 
and as the artists were successful in catching the 
spirit of the text the whole made a handsomely 
embellished work which was issued in book form 
in 1897. In 1900 a large popular edition was 
issued. The work exhibits Washington in the 
proper setting of his own times. The reader does 
not have to glimpse him through the smoke of 
Fourth-of-July celebrations — a vague, grandiose 
figure — but sees him as he really was, Virginia 
country gentleman, frontier surveyor, and mili- 
tary commander. Half the work is devoted to 
Washington's career prior to the movement for 
national union. The War of Independence and 
of the setting up of the national government come 
into the story only as incidental to the personal 
theme, but this mode of treatment makes the work 
singularly vivid. It is a history of the times writ- 
ten as an epic, the events being grouped about 
one noble and elevated personality. 

Among the magazine articles published in 
1897 is an essay upon "Mr. Cleveland as Presi- 

[65] 



WOODROW WILSON 



dent," which appeared in the March number of 
the Atlantic Monthly simultaneously with the 
close of Mr. Cleveland's career in what at the time 
looked like personal defeat and party calamity. 
This essay, which contains over eight thousand 
words, must have been composed while the pas- 
sions of the conflict were still boiling hot, but one 
finds in it the measured judgment and calm de- 
tachment of the scientific historian. It begins by 
saying that it is much too early to assign to Mr. 
Cleveland his place in history. 

*'It is plain, however, that Mr. Cleveland has 
rendered the country great services, and that his 
singular independence and force of purpose have 
made the real character of the Government of the 
United States more evident than it ever was be- 
fore. He had been the sort of President the mak- 
ers of the Constitution had vaguely in mind : more 
man than partisan, with an independent will of 
his own; hardly a colleague of the Houses so 
much as an individual servant of the country ; ex- 
ercising his powers like a chief magistrate rather 
than like a party leader." 

The essay proceeds to consider in detail the 

[66] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



leading measures of Cleveland's administration, 
and in reading it now after the lapse of many- 
years one feels that Wilson's immediate estimate 
anticipated the final verdict of history. A telling 
portion of the essay is that which vindicated Mr. 
Cleveland against the censure of impatient re- 
formers. 

"Outsiders could not know whether the criti- 
cism cut or not; they only knew that the Presi- 
dent did not falter or suffer his mind to be shaken. 
He had an enormous capacity for work, shirked 
no detail of his busy function, carried the Govern- 
ment steadily upon his shoulders. There is no an- 
tidote for worry to be compared with hard labor 
at important tasks which keep the mind stretched 
to large views; and the President looked upon 
himself as the responsible executive of the nation, 
not as the arbiter of policies. There is something 
in such a character that men of quick and ardent 
thought cannot like or understand. They want 
all capable men to be thinking, like themselves, 
along lines of active advance ; they are impatient 
of performance which is simply thorough without 
also being regenerative, and Mr. Cleveland has 

[67] 



WOODROW WILSON 



« 



not coiiiiiiended himself to them. They them- i 
selves would probably not make good presidents. 
A certain tough and stubborn fiber is necessary, 
which does not easily change, which is unelasti- 
cally strong." 

The reader will observe the pertinence of these 
remarks to some of the criticisms that Mr, Wilson 
himself has had to endure since he became presi- 
dent. The passage quoted is evidence that long 
before he entered life and when the presidency 
was still an undreamed-of possibility, he had 
firmly grasped the principle that the first duty 
of a responsible statesman is to act, not in the 
spirit of an adventurer, or of an experimentalist, ^ 
or even of a reformer, but in the spirit of a trus- 
tee. This noble and inspiring essay concluded 
with the following appreciation of Mr. Cleve- 
land's personality: 

"We need not pretend to know what history 
shall say of Mr. Cleveland ; we need not pretend 
that we can draw any common judgment of the 
man from the confused cries that now ring every- I 
where from friend and foe. We know only that 
he has played a great part; that his greatness is * 

[68] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



authenticated by the passion of love and hatred he 
has stirred up ; that no such great personahty has 
appeared in our politics since Lincoln; and that, 
whether greater or less, his personality is his own, 
unique in all the varied history of our Govern- 
ment. He has made policies and altered parties 
after the fashion of an earlier age in our histor^^ 
and the men who assess his fame in the future will 
be no partisans, but men who love candor, cour- 
age, honesty, strength, unshaken capacity, and 
high purpose such as his." 

In close succession to his masterly analysis of 
President Cleveland's administration, ISIr. Wil- 
son j)repared an analysis of our governmental 
mechanism, which was published in the Atlantic 
Monthly for July, 1897, with the title, ^'The Mak- 
ing of the Nation." In this, as in so many of his 
political essays, one may observe the flowering of 
ideas originally formed in his undergraduate 
days. In this respect his career closely corre- 
sponds to that of James Madison, extending to 
such a minute particular as that each of these 
Princeton students acquired shorthand to facili- 
tate his records. The dominating interest of each 

[69] 



WOODROW WILSON 



was the study of politics, and both ransacked the 
Princeton library for food for that appetite. 
From such studies Madison acquired the exten- 
sive knowledge of political history that he applied 
to the drafting of our national Constitution and 
poured forth in the essays collected in the Fed- 
eralist, A like pertinacity and industry in giving 
practical application to conclusions reached 
through careful observation and assiduous study 
is the most outstanding feature of Wilson's ca- 
reer. In considering his books and essays one is 
impressed by the frequency with which the same 
theme is presented and also by the continual 
freshness of the presentation. The theme itself 
was so copious as to admit of great variety of 
treatment, but the way in which the possibilities 
were utilized indicates an unflagging interest in 
the subject and an unquenchable ardor in studies 
upon it. 

"The Making of the Nation" is a survey of the 
whole course of our constitutional development. 
It is an article, about ten thousand words in 
length, particularly interesting in its clear pres- 
entation of political problems and in its indication 

[70] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



of the means of solving them. The following is 
from the concluding portion : 

"To the uninitiated Congress is simply a mass 
of individuals. It has no responsible leaders 
known to the system of government, and the lead- 
ers recognized by its rules are one set of individ- 
uals for one sort of legislation, another for an- 
other. The Secretaries cannot address or ap- 
proach either House as a whole; in dealing with 
committees they are dealing only with groups of 
individuals; neither party has its leader, — there 
are only influential men here and there who know 
how to manage its caucuses and take advantage 
of parliamentary openings on the floor. . . . 

*Tt is with such machinery that we are to face 
the future, find a wise and moderate policy, bring 
the nation to a common, a cordial understanding, 
a real unity of life. The President can lead only 
as he can command the ear of both Congress and 
the country, — only as any other individual might 
who could secure a like general hearing and ac- 
quiescence. Policy must come always from the 
deliberations of the House committees, the de- 
bates, both secret and open, of the Senate, the 

[71] 



I 



WOODROW WILSON 

■ ] ^ i 

compromises of committee conference between 
the Houses; no one man, no group of men, lead- - 
ing; no man, no group of men, responsible for 
the outcome. . . . We shall work out a remedy, 
for work it out we must. We must find or make, 
somewhere in our system, a group of men to lead 
us, who represent the nation in the origin and re- 
sponsibility of their power; who shall draw the 
Executive, who makes choice of foreign policy 
and upon whose ability and good faith the hon- * 
orable execution of the laws depends, into cor- 
dial cooperation with the legislature, which, un- 
der whatever form of government, must sanction ^ 
law and policy. Only under a national leader- 
ship, by a national selection of leaders, and by 
a method of constructive choice rather than of 
compromise and barter, can a various nation be 
peacefull}^ led. Once more is our problem of 
nation-making the problem of a form of govern- 
ment." 

Wilson's political essays and historical writ- 
ings were interspersed with more purely literary 
productions. His interests were broad, his read- 
ing took a wide range, his sociability brought to 

[72] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



him the varied stimulus of personal contacts, and 
his style had developed into a masterly instru- 
ment of expression adaptable to any literary pur- 
pose. An essay "On Being Human," published 
in the Atlantic Monthly for September, 1907, 
was widely quoted. The following* passage has 
a present interest in its revelation of character: 
"Let us remind ourselves that to be human is, 
for one thing, to speak and act with a certain 
note of genuineness, a quality mixed of spon- 
taneity and intelligence. This is necessary for 
wholesome life in any age, but particularly 
amidst confused affairs and shifting standards. 
Genuineness is not mere simplicity, for that may 
lack vitality, and genuineness does not. We ex- 
pect what we call genuine to have pith and 
strength of fiber. Genuineness is a quality which 
we sometimes mean to include when we speak of 
individuality. Individuality is lost the moment 
you submit to passing modes or fashions, the 
creations of an artificial society; and so is gen- 
uineness. No man is genuine who is forever 
trying to pattern his life after the lives of other 
people, — unless indeed he be a genuine dolt. 

[73] 



WOODROW WILSON 



But individuality is by no means the same as 
genuineness; for individuality may be associated 
with the most extreme and even ridiculous eccen- 
tricity, while genuineness we conceive to be al- 
ways wholesome, balanced and touched with dig- 
nity. It is a quality that goes with good sense 
and self-respect. It is a sort of robust moral 
sanity, mixed of elements both moral and intel- 
lectual. It is found in natures too strong to be 
mere trimmers and conformers, too well poised 
and thoughtful to fling off into intemperate pro- 
test and revolt." 

"A Lawyer with a Style," contributed to the 
Atlantic Monthly for September, 1898, is an ap- 
preciation of the career of the philosophical 
jurist. Sir Henry Maine. Here is a passage 
which recalls the fact that Wilson had a legal 
education and is familiar with the juristic point 
of view : 

"Persons who suppose that Maine's 'Ancient 
Law' is merely a textbook for lawyers will be 
very much and very delightfull}^ surprised if they 
will take it down from the shelf and read it, — 
as much surprised as young law students are 

[74] 



I 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



who plunge into Blackstone because they must, 
and find to their astonishment that those deep 
waters are not a little refreshing, and that the 
law, after all, is no dismal science." 

Consideration of Maine's "Popular Govern- 
ment" gives the essayist occasion for some com- 
ments upon democracy for which Maine had ex- 
pressed profound distrust: 

"But he is wrong — and the error is very radi- 
cal — in supposing that democracy really rests on 
a theory, and is nothing but 'a form of gov- 
ernment.' It is a form of character, where it is 
successful, — a form of national character; and 
is based, not upon a theory, but upon the steady 
evolutions of experience. . . . The stability of 
the Government of the United States is, he ad- 
mits, 'a political fact of the first importance ; but 
the inferences which might be drawn from it,' 
he says, 'are much weakened, if not destroyed, 
by the remarkable spectacle furnished by the 
numerous republics set up from the Mexican 
border-line to the Straits of Magellan.' The 
democracy of North America — to be found in 
Canada no less than in the United States — is as 

[75] 



WOODROW WILSON 



natural, as normal, as inevitable a product of 
steady, equable, unbroken history as the Corpus 
Juris of Justinian; and the heady miscarriages 
of attempted democracy in Spanish countries are 
as easily and as satisfactorily expHcable as the 
principles of contract or the history of inheri- 
tance by will. No champion of the comparative 
method of historical study ought to have discred- 
ited his own canons by comparing things incom- 
parable." 

Along with such literary labors Wilson con- 
tinued his historical studies. In January, 1901, 
the Atlantic Monthly published his essay on "The 
Reconstruction of the Southern States," and 
Harper s Magazine for the same month pub- 
lished the first of a series entitled, "Colonies and 
Nation." This series was the leading feature of 
Harjjers Magazine for over a year and a half, 
and was eventually published in book form as "A 
History of the American People," in fiYQ vol- 
umes, richly illustrated. The latest of his dis- 
tinctly historical treatises was the chapter on 
State Rights," prepared for the volume of the 
Cambridge IModern History" devoted to the 

[76] 



a 



a 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



United States. The chapter is long enough to 
form a treatise of itself, as it covers the important 
decade 1850-1860, and explains the causes of the 
Civil War. 

After he took office as president of Princeton 
University, he was too much occupied by his ad- 
ministrative tasks, and also by the increased de- 
mand for his services as a public speaker, to con- 
tinue the sustained application to literary tasks 
that had previously been his habit. 

Contributions to the literary periodicals be- 
came less frequent but they did not cease alto- 
gether. He prepared for the fiftieth anniversary 
number of the Atlantic Monthly, November, 
1907, an article on "Politics (1857-1907) ." The 
period considered required a survey of the na- 
tional life from an era of distress and perplexity 
over the slavery problem to an era of distress and 
perplexity over social and economic problems, 
and as the country has not yet emerged from the 
latter era, the essay has timely appositeness at 
the present day. After describing the vast scope 
of modern business organization, he continues : 

"There is a great and apparently growing 

[77] 



WOODROW WILSON 



body of opinion in the country which approves a 
radical change in the character of our institutions 
and the objects of our law, which wishes to see 
Government, and the Federal Government at 
that, regulate business. Some men who entertain 
this wish perceive that it is socialistic ; some do not. 
But of course it is socialistic. Government can- 
not properly or intelligently regulate business 
without fully comprehending it in its details as 
well as in its larger aspects ; it cannot comprehend 
it except through the instrumentality of expert 
commissions; it cannot use expert cormnissions 
long for purposes of regulation without itself by 
degrees undertaking actually to order and con- 
duct what it began by regulating. We are at 
present on the highroad to Government owner- 
ship of many sorts, or to some other method of 
control which will in practice be as complete as 
actual ownership. 

*'0n the other hand, there is a great body of 
opinion, slow to express itself, sorely perplexed 
in the presence of modern business conditions, but 
very powerful and upon the eve of an uprising, 
which prefers the older and simpler methods of 

[78] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



the law, prefers courts to commissions, and be- 
lieves them, if properly used and adapted, better, 
more efficacious, in the end more purifying, than 
the new instrumentalities now being so unthink- 
ingly elaborated. The country is still full of men 
who retain'a deep enthusiasm for the old ideals of 
individual liberty, sobered and kept within 
bounds by the equally old definitions of personal 
responsibility, the ancient safeguards against 
license ; and these men are right in believing that 
those older principles can be so used as to control 
modern business and keep government outside 
the pale of industrial enterprise. The law can 
deal with transactions instead of with methods of 
business, and with individuals instead of with 
corporations. It can reverse the process which 
creates corporations, and instead of compounding 
individuals, oblige corporations to analyze their 
organization and name the individuals responsible 
for each class of their transactions. The law, 
both civil and criminal, can clearly enough char- 
acterize transactions, can clearly enough deter- 
mine what their consequences shall be to the in- 
dividuals who engage in them in a responsible 

[79] 



WOODROW WILSON 



capacity. New definitions in that field are not 
beyond the knowledge of modern lawyers or the 
skill of modern law-makers, if they will accept 
the advice of disinterested lawyers. We shall 
never moralize society by fining or even dissolv- 
ing corporations; we shall only inconvenience it. 
We shall moralize it only when we make up our 
minds as to what transactions are reprehensible, 
and bring those transactions home to the indi- 
viduals with the full penalties of the law." 

In the North Americmi Review for May, 1908, 
there is an article by Mr. Wilson on "The States 
and the Federal Government." He pointed out 
that the actual distribution of authority "is not, 
at bottom, a question of sovereignty or of any 
other political abstraction; it is a question of 
vitality. 

"The old theory of the sovereignty of the 
States, which used to engage our passions, has 
lost its vitality. The war between the states es- 
tablished at least this principle, that the Federal 
Government is, through its courts, the final judge 
of its own powers. Since that stern arbitrament 
it would be idle, in any practical argument, to 

[80] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



ask by what law of abstract principle the Federal 
Government is bound and retained. Its power is 
*to regulate commerce between the states,' and 
the attempts now made during every session of 
Congress to carry the implications of that power 
bej^ond the utmost boundaries of reasonable and 
honest inference show that the only limits likely 
to be observed by politicians are those set by 
the good sense and conservative temper of the 

countrv. 

"The proposed Federal legislation with regard 
to the regulation of child labor affords a striking 
example. If the power to regulate commerce be- 
tween the states can be stretched to include the 
regulation of labor in mills and factories, it can 
be made to embrace every particular of the in- 
dustrial organization and action of the country. 

"We are too apt to think that our American 
political system is distinguished by its central 
structure, by its President and Congress and 
courts, which the Constitution of the Union set 
up. As a matter of fact, it is distinguished by its 
local structure, by the extreme vitality of its 
parts. . . . The remedy for ill-considered legis- 

[81] 



WOODROW WILSON 



lation by the states, the remedy alike for neglect 
and mistake on their part, lies, not outside the 
states, but within them. The mistakes which they 
themselves correct will sink deeper into the con- 
sciousness of their people than the mistakes which 
Congress may rush in to correct for them, thrust- 
ing upon them what they have not learned to de- 
sire. They will either themselves learn their mis- 
takes, by such intimate and domestic processes 
as will penetrate very deep and abide with them 
in convincing force, or else they will prove that 
what might have been a mistake for other states 
or regions of the country was no mistake for 
them, and the country will have been saved its 
wholesome variety. In no case will their failure 
to correct their own measures prove that the Fed- 
eral Government might have forced wisdom upon 
them." 

The only book produced during Mr. Wilson's 
career as university president was his "Constitu- 
tional Government in the United States," issued 
by the Columbia University Press in 1908. This 
work was made up of lectures dehvered at Colum- 
bia University from a schedule of topics upon 

[82] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



which JNIr. Wilson spoke extemporaneously. The 
work as published was a revision of the stenogra- 
phic report. In this book, which is the most com- 
plete expression of his political ideas, he considers 
the nature of constitutional government, the place 
of the United States in constitutional develop- 
ment, and the functions of the various organs of 
our Government. As to the Presidency he re- 
marked : 

"The makers of the Constitution seem to have 
thought of the President as what the stricter 
Whig theorists wished the King to be: only the 
legal executive, the presiding and guiding au- 
thority in the application of law and the execu- 
tion of policy. His veto upon legislation was 
only his 'check' on Congress, — was a power of 
restraint, not of guidance. He was empowered 
to prevent bad laws, but he w^as not given an op- 
portunity to make good ones. As a matter of 
fact he has become very much more. He has be- 
come the leader of his party and the guide of the 
nation in poHtical purpose, and therefore in legal 
action. The constitutional structure of the Gov- 
ernment has hampered and limited his action in 

[83] 



WOODROW WILSON 



these significant roles, but it has not prevented it." 
The detailed examination of the characteristics 
of the House and the Senate, is extremely vivid 
and interesting; but to get a fair notion of it, 
it should be read in its entirety. In view of Mr. 
Wilson's present position the following passage 
is particularly interesting : 

"The President has not the same recourse when 
blocked by the Senate that he has when opposed 
by the House. When the House declines his 
counsel he may appeal to the nation, and if public 
opinion respond to his appeal the House may 
grow thoughtful of the next congressional elec- 
tions and yield; but the Senate is not so imme- 
diately sensitive to opinion and is apt to grow, if 
anything, more stiff if pressure of that kind is 
brought to bear upon it. 

"But there is another course which the Presi- 
dent may follow, and which one or two Presidents 
of unusual political sagacity have followed, with 
the satisfactory results that were to have been ex- 
pected. He may himself be less stiff and offish, 
may himself act in the true spirit of the Constitu- 
tion and establish intimate relations of confidence 

[84] 



HIS BOOKS AND ESSAYS 



with the Senate on his own initiative, not carry- 
ing his plans to completion and then laying them 
in final form before the Senate to be accepted or 
rejected, but keeping himself in confidential com- 
munication with the leaders of the Senate while 
his plans are in course, when their advice will be 
of service to him and his information of the great- 
est service to them, in order that there may be 
veritable counsel and a real accommodation of 
views instead of a final challenge and contest." 
A curious incident of this lecture course was 
the effect produced by one of the humorous allu- 
sions so often made by Mr. Wilson when speak- 
ing extemporaneously. He was talking of the 
individual flavor of public opinion in rural coun- 
trysides, around comfortable stoves in crossroad 
stores, where discussion is as constant a pastime 
as checkers; and he made a passing reference to 
the incidental consum23tion of tobacco at such 
exercises. The allusion was featured in news- 
paper reports, and tobacco samples and tobacco 
literature suddenly became a feature of the mail 
of the Princeton president, who does not himself 
use tobacco in any form. 

[85] 



CHAPTER IV 

ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

MR. WILSON'S public career has been 
coeval with his literary career. If either 
has priority it is rather his public career, for that 
was the original aim of his purpose in life, and 
intentional preparation for it began in his under- 
graduate days. His ability as a public speaker 
is not so much a matter of natural gifts, al- 
though he was well endowed in that respect, as 
it is a result of steady practice and cultivated, 
method. Indeed, he had to contend with an op- 
pressive nervous tension in rising to speak, and 
great as his oratorical resources have become, 
that physical condition has never been quite abol- 
ished. This, however, is a circumstance which 
orators have to endure much more than is com- 
monly known. Both at Princeton and at the 
University of Virginia he cultivated his faculty 
for public speaking with a view to public serv- 
ice, and with characteristic thoroughness he gavej 

[86] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

special attention to the mechanics of oratory. 
His voice has great carrying power not because 
it is so loud but because he speaks deliberately, 
articulates with perfect distinctness, and man- 
ages his respiration so that every syllable has 
full resonance. In turning aside from the prac- 
tice of law to become an educator specializing in 
jurisprudence, he did not abate his predilections 
for a public career, nor did he decrease his atten- 
tion to oratorical training and equipment. The 
literary production described in the previous 
chapter was interspersed with public addresses 
and lecture engagements. Of most of these no 
record remains. By the time his reputation had 
become such as to bring him many invitations to 
the lecture platform, his power of extemporane- 
ous utterance had become so quick and flexible 
as to be immediately adaptable to any occasion, 
and his lectures had the easy, spontaneous flow 
of intimate conversation. From time to time, 
however, he made, upon some special topic, an 
address that has been preserved. 

At the meeting of the Virginia State Bar 
Association, held at Hot Springs, Virginia, 

[87] 



WOODROW WILSON 



beginning' August 3, 1897, he made a frank ex- 
position of his views on governmental structure. 
His topic was "Leaderless Government," by 
which, he said, "I mean to describe the Govern- 
ment of the United States. 

"I do not beheve it a necessary feature of our 
Government that we should be without leaders; 
neither do I believe that we shall continue to be 
without them ; but as a matter of fact we are with- 
out them, and we ought to ask ourselves, why? 
I mean, of course, that we are without official 
leaders — without leaders who can be held imme- 
diately responsible for the action and policy of 
the Government, alike upon its legislative and 
upon its administrative side. Leaders of some 
sort we, of course, always have; but they come 
and go like phantoms, put forward as if by acci- 
dent, withdrawn, not by our choice, but as if 
upon some secret turn of fortune which we 
neither anticipate nor as a nation control — some 
local quarrel, some obscure movement of poli- 
tics within a single district, some manipulation 
of a primary or some miscarriage in a conven- 
tion. They are not of the nation, but come and 

[88] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

go as if unbidden by any general voice. The 
Government does not put them forward, but 
groups of men formed we hardly know where, 
planning we hardly know what ; the Government 
suffers no change when they disappear — that is 
the private affair of some single constituency and 
of the men who have supplanted them. 

"The President may, no doubt, stand in the 
way of measures with a veto very hard to over- 
leap ; and we think oftentimes with deep comfort 
of the laws he can kill when we are afraid of the 
majority in Congress. Congressional majori- 
ties are doubtless swayed, too, by what they know 
the President wiU do with the bills they send 
him. But they are swayed sometimes one way 
and sometimes the other, according to the tem- 
per of the times and state of parties. They as 
often make his assured veto a pretext for reck- 
lessness as a reason for self-restraint. They take 
a sort of irresponsible and defiant pleasure in 
'giving him the dare': in proposing things they 
know many people want and putting upon him 
the lonely responsibility of saying that they shall 
not have them. And if he stand for long in the 

[89] 



WOODROW WILSON 



way of any serious party purpose, they heat opin- 
ion against him and make his position more and 
more unpleasant, until he either yields or is finally 
discredited. It is a game in which he has no 
means of attack and few effective weapons of 
defense. 

"Of course he can send a message to Congress 
whenever he likes — the Constitution bids him to 
do so 'from time to time,' in order to 'give Con- 
gress information of the state of the Union, 
and to recommend to their consideration such 
measures as he shall deem necessary and expe- 
dient' ; and we know that, if he be a man of real 
power and statesmanlike initiative, he may often 
hit the wish and purpose of the nation so in the 
quick in what he urges upon Congress that the 
Houses will heed him promptly and seriously 
enough. But there is a stubborn and very nat- 
ural pride in the Houses with respect to this 
matter. They, not he, are the nation's repre- 
sentatives in the making of law; and they would 
deem themselves subservient were they too often 
to permit him leadership in legislative policy. It 
is easy to stir their resentment by too much sug- 

[90] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 



gestion; and it is best that a message should be 
general, not special — best that it should cover a 
good many topics and not confine itself too nar- 
rowly to one, if a President would keep in credit 
with those who shape matters within the House 
and Senate. In all ordinary times the President 
recognizes this and preserves a sort of modesty, 
a tone as if of a chronicler merety, and setter 
forth of things administrative, when he addresses 
Congress. He makes it his study to use only a 
private influence and never to seem a maker of 
resolutions. And even when the occasion is ex- 
traordinary and his ow^n mind definitely made up, 
he argues and urges — he cannot command. In 
short, in making suggestions to Congress the 
President of the United States has only this ad- 
vantage over any other influential person in the 
nation who might choose to send to Congress a 
letter of information and advice. It is the duty 
of Congress to read what he says ; all the larger 
newspapers will print it ; most of them will have 
editorial comments upon it; and some will have 
letters from their Washington correspondents 
devoted to guessing what effect, if any, it will 

[91] 



WOODROW WILSON 



I 



have upon legislation. The President can make 
his message a means of concentrating public 
opinion upon particular topics of his own choos- 
ing, and so force those topics upon the atten- 
tion of the House. But that is all; and under 
ordinary circumstances it is not much." 

The address contains a clear and thorough 
analj'-sis of the mastery over public policy and the 
course of legislation then exercised by the 
Speaker, but which has been overthrown by the 
parliamentary revolution that has shorn the 
Speaker of his autocratic power and reduced him 
to his proper function of a moderator. With 
respect to the Senate, he remarked: 

"The Senate unquestionably, whatever we may 
think about the House of Representatives, stands 
unique among legislative bodies in the modern 
time. Whether we relish its uniqueness in the 
present generation quite as much as it was rel- 
ished among our fathers is an open question, but 
its individuality is indubitable. This singular 
body has assumed of late what I may, perhaps, 
be allowed to call a sort of Romo-Polish charac- 
ter. Like the Roman Senate, it has magnified its 

[92] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

administrative powers and its right of negative 
in the great fields of finance and foreign affairs, 
as well as in all ordinary legislation ; and, follow- 
ing Polish precedents, it has seemed to arrogate 
to its members the right of individual veto. Each 
senator, like each prince of ancient Poland, in- 
sists, it would seem, upon consulting his own in- 
terests and preferences before he will allow meas- 
ures to reach their final consideration and pas- 
sage. In the field of administration, it seems 
plain, the Senate expects the executive very gen- 
erally to submit to its oversight and suggestion, 
as Roman magistrates submitted to the Senate 
of their singular republic. I am anxious not to 
distort the true proportions of the picture, even 
in pleasantry; and, if to put the matter as I 
have just put it savors too much of exag- 
gerating temporary tendencies into established 
practices, let us rest content with saying merely 
that this noted assembly has at almost every crit- 
ical juncture of our recent political history had 
an influence in affairs greater, much greater, 
than that of the House of Representatives; and 
that the methods by which this great council is 

[93] 



WOODROW WILSON 



led are likely to be of the utmost consequence to 
the nation at every turn in its fortunes. Who 
leads the Senate? Can anyone say?" 

It is true that in the past the Government had 
gotten on somehow, without formal leadership 
and by casual methods of adjustment between its 
separate organs, but a vast change in conditions 
has taken place. 

"Where conditions are comparatively simple 
and uniform, constructive leadership is little 
needed. Men readily see things alike and easily 
come to a common opinion upon the larger sort 
of questions ; or, at any rate, to two general opin- 
ions, w^idespread and definite enough to form 
parties on. For well-nigh a generation after the 
war, moreover, the problems which the Govern- 
ment of the Union had to settle were very defi- 
nite problems indeed, which no man could mis- 
take, and upon which opinion could readily be 
concentrated. I think the country sadly needed 
responsible and conscientious leadership during 
the period of Reconstruction, and it has suff'ered 
many things because it did not get it — things of 
which we still keenly feel the consequences. But 

[94] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

the tasks, at least, were definite and unmistak- 
able, and parties formed themselves upon sharp- 
cut issues. 

"Since then, how has the scene changed! It 
is not now fundamental matters of structure and 
franchise upon which we have to center our 
choice ; but those general questions of policy upon 
which every nation has to exercise its discretion: 
foreign policy, our duty to our neighbors, cus- 
toms tariiFs, coinage, currency, immigration, the 
law of corporations and of trusts, the regulation 
of railway traffic and of the great industries 
which supply the necessaries of life and the staiFs 
of manufacture. These are questions of eco- 
nomic policy chiefly; and how shall we settle 
questions of economic pohcy except upon 
grounds of interest? These are not questions 
upon which it is easy to concentrate general opin- 
ion. It is infinitely difficult to effect a general 
enlightenment of the public mind in regard to 
their real merits and significance for the nation 
as a whole. Their settlement in any one way af- 
fects the several parts of the country unequally. 
They cannot be settled justly by a mere com- 

[95] 



WOODROW WILSON 



pounding of differences, a mere unguided inter- 
play of rival individual forces, without leadership 
and the courage of definite party action. Such 
questions are as complex and as difficult of ade- 
quate comprehension as the now infinitely varied 
life of the nation itself; and we run incalculable 
risks in leaving their settlement to the action of 
a House of Representatives whose leaders are 
silent and do not tell us upon what principle they 
act, or upon what motive; to a Senate whose 
members insist upon making each an individual 
contribution to the result; and to a President 
chosen by processes which have little or nothing 
to do with party organization or with the solu- 
tion of questions of State. . . . 

"Successful governments have never been con- 
ducted safely in the midst of complex and criti- 
cal affairs except when guided by those who were 
responsible for carr^ang out and bringing to an 
issue the measures they proposed ; and the separa- 
tion of the right to plan from the duty to exe- 
cute has always led to blundering and ineffi- 
ciency. ... If you would have the present error 
of our system in a word, it is this, that Congress 

[96] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

is the motive power in the Government and yet 
has in it nowhere any representative of the na- 
tion as a whole. Our Executive, on the other 
hand, is national; at any rate may be made so, 
and yet has no longer any place of guidance in 
our system. It represents no constituency, but 
the whole people; and yet, though it alone is na- 
tional, it has no originative voice in domestic na- 
tional policy. . . . We should have not a little 
light thrown daily, and often when it is least ex- 
pected, upon the conduct of the departments, if 
the heads of the departments had daily to face 
the representatives of the people, to propose, de- 
fend, explain administrative policy, upon the 
floor of the Houses, where such a plan would put 
them : and heads of departments would be happy 
under such a system only when they were very 
straightforward and honest and able men." 

This address has been considered at some 
length because of the simplicity and directness 
with which he states opinions which run all 
through his political essays. The occasion was 
an inspiring one. Himself a lawyer and a Vir- 
ginian, he was speaking to a gathering of Vir- 

[97] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ginia lawyers, and he began by expressing his 
keen gratification at finding himself in such con- 
genial company, and his feeling that he might 
speak his mind frankly without being misunder- 
stood. However, this significant address, al- 
though it made a signal impression upon its hear- 
ers and was dul}^ reported and preserved in the 
transactions of the Virginia State Bar Associa- 
tion, did not receive such general publicity as has 
attended his books and essays, and it deserves 
more notice than it has hitherto received. 

After his election to the presidency of Prince- 
ton in 1902, he made many addresses on educa- 
tional topics, in the main expository of the ideas 
and principles he was introducing into university 
management. His utterance, apart from the 
subjects evoked by his duties and aims as an edu- 
cator, was devoted to public affairs. His repu- 
tation as a publicist was now so widespread that 
calls for advice upon public problems and appeals 
for addresses upon political questions reached 
him from all parts of the country. Literary 
themes do not figure in the publications of this 
period, but, instead, reports of addresses deliv- 

[98] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 



ered upon various occasions. A number of mag- 
azine articles belong to this time, but the struc- 
ture and style indicate that they too originated 
as oral addresses and not as written essays. 
Some important addresses on public affairs were 
delivered upon such short notice that they had the 
appearance of an improvisation, but as a rule 
there was preparation as to ideas and spontaneity 
as to diction. JNIr. Wilson's habitual use of short- 
hand greatly facilitates his preparation. By this 
means his argument can be skeletonized in a brief 
space. Some important addresses were written 
out in shorthand and then dictated to an amanu- 
ensis, but even such elaborate preparation did 
not confine the delivery, and the address as spoken 
would differ in order and diction from the ad- 
dress as previously written. A stenographer who 
has reported many of Mr. Wilson's addresses, and 
has often had the use of his preliminary draft, 
told the present writer that Mr. Wilson was not 
a rapid shorthand writer, but that his characters 
were so perfectly formed that anyone acquainted 
with the system could read the notes with ease. 
It was rarely the case that the address as deliv- 

[99] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ered was quite the same as the draft. There was 
the same general matter and line of thought, but 
often differently put and in another order, and 
with new illustrations. Mr. Wilson's mastery of 
his powers became such that he excelled in that 
supreme capacity of the public speaker — the abil- 
ity to deal with casual incidents or interruptions 
so as to turn them to account. He became dis- 
tinctly a figure in the public life of the country 
years before he actually accepted public office. 
He laid down a principle upon which he himself 
acted, when he told the Cleveland Chamber of 
Commerce that "public life does not consist 
merely of the transaction of public business. It 
consists of the formation of public opinion, of 
the guidance of public purpose, of the promot- 
ing of progress and of the criticizing of rem- 
edies." 

In this Cleveland address which was delivered 
November 16, 1907, he gave special attention to 
the problem of corporation control, and spoke 
very frankly about it, as in the following : 

*Tor my part I don't believe that fining cor- 
porations is of the least use for the ends we seek. 

[100] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

If you fine a corporation twenty-nine million 
dollars, what happens is that you take twenty- 
nine million dollars, if you get it — it has not been 
paid yet — but if you get it you put it into the 
public treasury and take it out of the business of 
the country, and the same thing will be done the 
next day that was done the day before and was 
the antecedent of the fine. If a chauffeur goes 
too fast, I have heard some of my fellow-citizens 
propose that we lock up the machine. I had a 
great deal rather lock up the chauffeur. I sup- 
pose that if a railway accident occurs you will 
lock up the locomotive presently — ^you will lock 
up our tools because we do not have sense 
enough or humanity enough to use them prop- 
erly. Corporations, those imaginary persons, 
are our tools. And the responsibility is not to 
rest upon them to the incommoding of the whole 
business development of the country, but is to 
rest upon the individuals who are misusing 
them." 

In an address delivered at the annual conven- 
tion of the American Bankers' Association, at 
Denver, September 30, 1908, Mr. Wilson con- 

[101] 



WOODROW WILSON 



sidered the social and political functions of bank- 
ing. He told his hearers : 

"It is the duty of the banker, as it is the duty 
of men of every other class, to see to it that there 
be in his calling no class spirit, no feeling of an- 
tagonism to the people, to plain men whom the 
bankers, to their great loss and detriment, do not 
know. It is their duty to be intelligent, thought- 
ful, patriotic intermediaries between capital and 
the people at large; to understand and serve the 
general interest; to be public men serving the 
country as well as private men serving their de- 
positors and the enterprises whose securities and 
notes they hold. How capital is to draw near 
to the people and serve them at once obviously 
and safely is the question, the great and now 
pressing question, which it is the particular duty 
of the banker to answer. No one else can an- 
swer it so intelligently; and if he does not an- 
swer it others will, it may be, to his detriment 
and to the general embarrassment of the coun- 
try." 

In an address delivered before the Southern 
Society of New York, December 9, 1908, Mr. 
! [102] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

Wilson made a comprehensive survey of public 
questions. That was just after the election of 
Mr. Taft. With a prescience that subsequent 
events abundantly justified, Doctor Wilson de- 
clared that the campaign had settled nothing ex- 
cept the question of who should be President of 
the United States; that it left the country in a 
condition wherein serious problems arising out 
of new economic conditions demanded immediate 
attention — problems of capital and labor, pro- 
tection and the tariff, centralized authority, etc. 
He characterized as a false conservatism "that 
sort of conservatism which proposes a return to 
old measures and expedients intended for other 
circumstances, or to old formulas now in large 
part emptied of their meaning. For example, 
the old formula 'tariff for revenue only' has a 
barren sound to our ears in existing circum- 
stances, because the tariff as we know it is not 
a system of taxation; it is, rather, a vast body 
of economic expedients which have been used 
under the guise of taxation for the purpose of 
building up various industries great and small, 
and enriching the nation as a body of individuals 

[103] 



WOODROW WILSON 



rather than as a Government. It would be per- 
fectly futile to propose out of hand a tariff for 
revenue only, because you cannot get out of a 
system except by systematic effort and adjust- 
ment, and the point to determine at present is 
not, how may we best secure the necessary rev- 
enue for the maintenance and conduct of our 
Government by means of duties on imports, but 
how shall we adjust our duties on imports to the 
present real circumstances of the nation and the 
present interests of our economic development as 
a whole?" 

In an address before the University of North 
Carolina on the anniversary of Lee's birthday, 
he called attention to the significance of the fact 
that General Lee is accepted as a national hero. 

"It means simply this delightful thing, that 
there are no sections in this country any more; 
that we are a nation and are proud of all the 
great heroes whom the processes of our national 
life have elevated into conspicuous places of 
fame. I believe that the future lies with all those 
men who devote themselves to national thinking, 
who eschew those narrow calculations of self- 

[104] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 



interest which affect only particular communities 
and try to conceive of communities as a part of 
a great national life which must be purified in 
order that it may be successful." 

ft.'' 

In the course of this address he touched on the 
problem of corporation control. He remarked: 

"There is only, historically speaking, one pos- 
sible successful punishment of abuses of law, and 
that is, that w^hen a wrong thing is done you find 
the man who did it and punish him. You can fine 
all the corporations there are, and fine them out 
of existence, and all you will have done will be 
to have embarrassed the commerce of the coun- 
try. You will have left the men who did it free 
to repeat it in other combinations. 

"I am going to use an illustration which you 
can easily misunderstand, but I am going to ask 
you not to misunderstand it. Suppose I should 
incorporate an association of burglars with the 
assurance that you would restrain their actions, 
not as individuals, but only as a corporation. 
They would be very much pleased with that ar- 
rangement, because it would leave them the serv- 
ice of their most accomplished burglars, who 

[105] 



WOODROW WILSON 



could fool you half the time and not be found out. 
Such a corporation would be willing to pay you 
a heavy fine for the privilege. Now I do not 
mean to draw a parallel between our great cor- 
porations and burglars, — that is where you are 
likely to misunderstand me (laughter), because 
I do not hold the prevalent belief that the ma- 
jority of the business men of this country are 
burglars; I believe, on the contrary, that the 
number of malicious men engaged in corpora- 
tions in this country is very small. But that 
small number is singularly gifted (laughter), 
and until you have picked them out and distin- 
guished them for punishment you have not 
touched the process by which they succeed in 
doing what they wish. You may say that this is 
a very difficult thing, that there is so much covert, 
so much undergrowth, the nation is so thickset 
with organizations that you cannot see them. 
Perhaps you are right; but that does not make 
any difference to my argument ; whether difficult 
or not it has got to be done." 

In the following month Doctor Wilson deliv- 
ered an address at the Chicago celebration of the 

[106] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 



one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. It was a congenial employment as 
the character and achievements of Lincoln have 
been a theme on which he has often touched with 
loving appreciation. In closing his address he 
said : 

''God send us such men again! We are con- 
fused by a war of interests, a clash of classes, a 
competition of powers, an effort at conquest and 
restraint, and the great forces which war and toil 
amongst us can be guided and reconciled only by 
some man who is truly a man of the people, as 
Lincoln was, not caught in the toils of any spe- 
cial interest, united by wide sympathy with many 
kinds of men, familiar with many aspects of life, 
and led, through many changes, to a personal ex- 
perience which unites him with the common mass. 
. . . The only way in which we can worthily cele- 
brate any great man is not by a mere tribute of 
words, not by the weak and futile tribute of imi- 
tation, but by the convincing tribute of those who 
seek to see and execute their task with the same 
free hand and untainted motive. ..." 

In an address at the annual meeting of the 

[107] 



WOODROW WILSON 



Civic League of St. Louis, March 9, 1909, Doc- 
tor Wilson dissected the fallacy that in order 
to control their Government the people must 
themselves administer it. This address abounded 
with anecdote and illustration, enforcing the 
point that not further complication but great 
simplification is necessary to give the Govern- 
ment a democratic character. 

"You have given the people of this country 
so many persons to select for office that they have 
not time to select them, and have to leave it to 
professionals, that is to say, the professional poli- 
ticians ; which, reduced to its simplest term, is the 
boss of the district. When you vote the Repub- 
lican or Democratic ticket you either vote for the 
names selected by one machine or the names se- 
lected by the other machine. This is not to lay 
any aspersion upon those who receive the nomi- 
nations. I for one do not subscribe to the opin- 
ion that bosses under our Government deserve 
our scorn and contempt, for we have organized a 
system of government which makes them just 
as necessary as the President of the United 
States. They are the natural, inevitable fruit 

[108] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 



of the tree, and if we do not like them we have 
got to plant another tree. The boss is just as 
legitimate as any member of any legislature, be- 
cause by giving the people a task which they can- 
not perform, you have taken it away from them, 
and have made it necessary that those who can 
perform it should perform it. . . . 

*'The remedy is contained in one word, Sim- 
plification. Simplify your processes, and you 
will begin to control; complicate them, and you 
will get farther and farther away from their con- 
trol. Simphfication! Simplification! Simplifi- 
cation! is the task that awaits us: to reduce the 
number of persons voted for to the absolute work- 
able minimum, — knowing whom you have se- 
lected; knowing whom you have trusted, and 
having so few persons to watch that you can 
watch them. That is the way we are going to 
get popular control back in this country, and that 
is the only way we are going to get j)opuiar con- 
trol back. ... I am for the real rights and not 
the rhetorical rights of the people. I am for 
those things which are really and practically in 
the interest of self-government; and I say that 

[109] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the interests of self-government are served by 
nothing except by reducing the number of elec- 
tive officers to the absolute minimum of effi- 
ciency," 

The North American Review for October, 
1909, had a long article by Doctor Wilson on 
the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill, giving a detailed 
expression of views that he had stated in public 
on various occasions. He observed : 

"The methods by which tariff bills are con- 
structed have now become all too familiar and 
throw a significant light upon the character of 
the legislation involved. Debate in the Houses 
has little or nothing to do with it. The process 
by which such a bill is made is private, not public ; 
because the reasons which underlie many of the 
rates imposed are private. The stronger faction 
of the Waj^s and Means Committee of the House 
makes up the preliminary bill, with the assist- 
ance of 'experts' whom it permits the industries 
most concerned to supply for its guidance. The 
controlling members of the Committee also deter- 
mine what amendments, if any, shall be accepted, 
either from the minority faction of the Commit- 

[110] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 



tee or from the House itself. It permits itself 
to be dictated to, if at all, only by the imperative 
action of a party caucus. The stronger faction 
of the Finance Committee of the Senate, in like 
fashion, frames the bill which it intends to sub- 
stitute for the one sent up from the House. It is 
often to be found at work on it before any bill 
reaches it from the popular chamber. The com- 
promise between the two measures is arranged 
in private conference by conferees drawn from 
the two committees. What takes place in the 
committees and in the conference is confidential. 
It is considered impertinent for reporters to in- 
quire. It is admitted to be the business of the 
manufacturers concerned, but not the business of 
the public, who are to pay the rates. The debates 
which the country is invited to hear in the open 
sessions of the Houses are merely formal. They 
determine nothing and disclose very little. It is 
the policy of silence and secrecy, indeed, with re- 
gard to the whole process, that makes it abso- 
lutely inconsistent with every standard of public 
duty and political integrity." 

After an examination of the tariff schedules, 

[111] 



WOODROW WILSON 



and their social and economic consequences, he 

asks: 

"What, then, shall we do? Shall we adopt 
'Thorough' as our motto and sweep the whole sys- 
tem away, be quit of privilege and favors at once, 
put our industries upon their own resources and 
center national legislation wholly upon the busi- 
ness of the nation? By no means. The system 
cannot be suddenly destroyed. That would 
bring our whole economic life into radical danger. 
. . . Constitutional la\^yers long ago determined 
that it was certainly within the choice of Con- 
gress to lay import duties, if it pleased, with a 
view to the incidental benefit of traders and man- 
ufacturers within the country; and, if that inci- 
dental object has in later days become the chief 
and only guiding object of the rates of duty, 
that, I take it, is only a question of more or less, 
not a question which cuts so deep as to affect 
the power of Congress or draw it seriously into 
debate again. . . . For when you have the gen- 
eral benefit of the country as your standard, you 
have a principle upon which it is as legitimate to 
withdraw protection as to give it. . . . Existing 

[112] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 



protection should not be suddenly withdrawn, 
but steadily, and upon a fixed program upon 
which every man of business can base his definite 
forecasts and systematic plans." 

So continuous was Doctor Wilson's attention 
to public affairs and so frequent were the occa- 
sions on which he gave his views, that it is im- 
]30ssible to point to any event that marked his 
entrance into public life. It was a thing of grad- 
ual development. Its beginnings are traceable 
to his undergraduate period, and public recogni- 
tion of it is coeval with his whole career as an 
educator. But the time when all perceived what 
the well-informed had all along discerned came 
when he was made president of Princeton Uni- 
versity. Viscount Brj^ce, in his well-known trea- 
tise on "The American Commonwealth," notes 
the exercise of public influence by university 
presidents as a characteristic feature of American 
politics. "No university dignitaries in Great 
Britain are so well known to the public, or have 
their opinions quoted with so much respect, as 
the heads of the seven or eight leading universi- 
ties of the United States." This characteristic 

[113] 



WOODROW WILSON 



attitude of American public opinion may, per- 
haps, be due to the fact that the need of inde- 
pendent and disinterested advice upon public af- 
fairs is felt with special keenness. 

Doctor Wilson's term as a university president 
was a period of great uneasiness in the public 
mind. The authority of the Government had 
apparently passed under private control, and it 
seemed as if the only practical effect of elections 
was to change the players without changing the 
game. In the presidential campaign of 1904, 
the Democratic candidate charged that the party 
in power was being financed by contributions 
from corporations and trust magnates. He de- 
clared that such methods had transformed the 
government of the people into "a government 
whose officers are practically chosen by a handful 
of corporate managers, who levy upon the assets 
of the stoclvholders w^hom they represent such 
sums of money as they deem requisite to place 
the conduct of the Government in such hands as 
they consider best for their private interests." 
The general charge of the financing of party 
management by trust magnates was abundantly 

[114] 




WooDRow Wilson, Age 46 
The picture was taken in 1902, the year he was elected president of 

Princeton University 



4, 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

substantiated by subsequent disclosures, but it 
was shown that their bounty was not confined by 
party lines, so that as between the national party 
organizations it was merely a case of the kettle 
and the pot, while from the standpoint of govern- 
ment it was a case of general foulness in the 
instruments of popular rule. 

During this period of agitation and perplexity, 
Doctor Wilson had clear and positive opinions to 
express upon all the issues of the times. National 
knowledge and appreciation of his leadership 
gradually acquired a volume that naturally gravi- 
tated to the channels of action. During 1910 
invitations became frequent in which political 
intention was noticeable. On March 29 he was 
the principal speaker at a Democratic gathering 
at Ehzabeth, New Jersey. In this address he 
made a searching examination of Democratic 
party duties and responsibilities. Emphatically 
disclaiming the notion that the getting of office 
was anything but a means of public service, he 
proceeded to inquire as to what are the standards 
of the Democratic party. "Why do we assure 
ourselves that we can advise and lead the country 

[115] 



WOODROW WILSON 



better than the Repubhcans can?" To this ques- 
tion he gave a categorical answer, defining the 
Democratic party position and distinguishing it 
from the Republican party position. He held 
that Republican party behavior had shown that 
"their confidence was not in the views and desires 
of the people as a whole, but in the promotion of 
the interests of the country at the hands of those 
who chiefly controlled its resources. It has been 
their first thought to safeguard property and es- 
tablish enterprise." The Democratic position, 
while not hostile to property or enterprise, was 
one of faith in the people as a whole, and of deter- 
mination to serve the people "not in groups and 
sections but as a whole." Another fundamental 
principle of Democracy is that "society must be 
organized so that the individual will not be 
crushed, will not be unnecessarily hampered. 
Every legal instrumentality created for his con- 
venience, like the corporation, must be created 
only for his convenience and never for his govern- 
ment or suppression." Still another fundamental 
principle is adherence to the Constitutional divi- 
sion of power as between the states and the federal 

[116] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 



Government. "A party at once conservative in 
respect of the law and radical in respect of the 
service we mean to render the people ; our policies 
do not cut to the alteration of institutions, but to 
the effectuation of measures." 

Doctor Wilson did not stop short with a state- 
ment of principles; he went on to consider their 
practical application. He held that in curbing 
the trusts, we should not assume management of 
them. "It is imperatively necessary, if govern- 
ment is to be kept pure and impartial, that its 
officers should not themselves be made partners 
or managers of the great corporate enterprises 
through which the public is served. Our regula- 
tion of public interests must be legal regulation 
and not direct management." In respect of tariff 
legislation, he said it was clearly the duty of the 
party to put an end to the system that has long 
since "ceased to be a policy of protection and 
become a policy of patronage, a policy of ar- 
rangement by which particular interests in the 
country may be sure of their profits, whether the 
country profits by their enterprise or not." In 
conclusion he remarked: "And, finally, it seems 

[117] 



WOODROW WILSON 



to me that it is the duty of the Democratic party 
to challenge the people by every possible means 
to depend upon themselves rather than fostering 
powers lodged in groups of individuals. There 
have been many encouraging signs in recent 
j^ears, particularly in some of our smaller cities, 
that we have at last come upon a time when the 
people are arousing themselves to give over being 
dependent upon men whom they cannot watch 
and are taking direct charge, at any rate, of their 
local governments. There is no reason why this 
process should not extend to the governments of 
the states and in effect to the government of the 
nation. A simplification of electoral processes 
will do much to accomplish this. Government 
can be put in such a form as to be easy to under- 
stand, easy to criticize, easy to restrain. It 
should be the study of every sincere Democrat to 
promote the measure by which these things can be 
accomplished." 

During the summer of 1910 the question of the 
Democratic nomination to the governorship of 
New Jersey was up for an answer. Doctor Wil- 
son held himself aloof from any contrivance to 

[118] 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

obtain that nomination, but there was a growing 
demand for his candidacy, and this not merely 
with regard to New Jersey interests but far more 
with regard to national interests. The long- 
established system of government by private ar- 
rangement had been shattered by the successful 
revolt against Speaker Cannon, but no system 
of responsible government had been devised to 
take its place. American politics seemed to be 

Wandering between two worlds, one dead, 
The other powerless to be born. 

There was a widely held belief that by training, 
attainments, and character, Woodrow Wilson 
was particularly wxll qualified to serve as a popu- 
lar leader at this juncture, and organization in 
furtherance of that purpose began in many parts 
of the country. Expressions of desire were fre- 
frequently heard that New Jersey Democrats 
should present his candidacy. Doctor Wilson 
took no part in these movements but went his 
way as usual, speaking frankly on public affairs, 
without troubling himself in the least as to 
whether his openness might impair his availabil- 

[119] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ity. The matter eventually acquired an urgency 
that he felt bound to recognize. It was pointed 
out to him that to deal intelligently with the situa- 
tion, those disposed to sujDport him were entitled 
to know whether he would accept the nomination 
if it could be had. This argument broke his re- 
serve and on July 25 he issued a statement in 
which he said: 

"I need not say that I am in no sense a can- 
didate for the nomination, and that I would not 
under any circumstances do anything to obtain 
it. My present duties and responsibilities are 
such as should satisfy any man desirous of render- 
ing public service. They certainly satisfy me, and 
I do not wish to draw away from them. 

"But my wish does not constitute my duty, 
and, if it should turn out to be true, as so many 
well-informed persons have assured me they be- 
lieve it will, that it is the wish and hope of a 
decided majority of the thoughtful Democrats 
of the state that I should consent to accept the 
party's nomination for the great office of Gover- 
nor, I should deem it my duty, as well as an 
honor and a privilege, to do so." 

[120] 



ENTllANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

When the Democratic State Convention met 
on Thursday, September 15, Doctor Wilson was 
nominated on the first ballot. 




CHAPTER V 

GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

OCTOR WILSON remained absolutely 
quiescent during the canvass for the elec- 
tion of delegates to the state convention, except on 
one occasion, when he wrote a letter for publica- 
tion in reply to charges that he was hostile to 
organized labor. These charges did not them- 
selves elicit the letter, but the editor of a Labor 
paper wrote to him desiring to know his opinions, 
and received a frank reply. Doctor Wilson 
wrote, August 23, 1910: 

"It is, in my opinion, not only perfectly legit- 
imate, but absolutely necessary that labor should 
organize if it is to secure justice from organized 
capital, and ever^^thing that it does to improve 
the condition of workingmen, to obtain legislation 
that will impose full legal responsibility upon the 
employer for his treatment of his employees and 
for their protection against accident, to secure 
just and adequate wages, and to put reasonable 

[122] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

limits upon the working day and upon the exac- 
tions of those who employ labor, ought to have 
the hearty support of all fair-minded and public- 
spirited men; for there is a sense in which the 
condition of labor is the condition of the nation 
itself. 

"I have criticized some of the things organized 
labor has occasionally done, but I have criticized 
them as a friend and because I thought them 
harmful to the laborers themselves and harmful 
to the country. I know of no other standard by 
which to judge these things than the interest of 
the whole community. The laboring man cannot 
benefit himself by injuring the industries of the 
country. . . . 

"I am much more afraid that the great cor- 
porations, combinations and trusts will do the 
country deep harm than I am that the labor or- 
ganizations will harm it, and yet I believe the 
corporations to be necessary instruments of mod- 
ern business. They are good things so long as 
as they act in the common interest, and very bad 
things when they do not. . . . 

"But our object, in the one case as in the 

[123] 



WOODROW WILSON 



other, should not be hostile. There has been hos- 
tility enough ail around. What we need now is 
to take common counsel as to what is for the com- 
mon benefit, for the good of the country and of 
the several communities in which we live and 
earn our bread, and also our happiness." 

Doctor Wilson did not vary from his ordinary 
occupations during the canvass. He spent his 
summer vacation at Lyme, Connecticut, as had 
been his habit for some years, and he was not back 
in New Jersey until his duties as president of the 
University called him thither. He was playing 
golf on the Princeton links when the news came 
that he had been nominated for governor on the 
first ballot, and that the convention would like 
to hear from him. A powerful touring car had 
been sent to bring him. The eleven miles be- 
tween Princeton and Trenton were covered so 
rapidly that in about half an hour after the an- 
nouncement of the ballot the candidate was on 
the platform. The address he delivered is unique 
in the exactness with which it described a pro- 
gram of action which his administration did ac- 
tually put through. Rarely has there been such 

[124] 



n i W M ' JW. j ^ im 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 



close correspondence between pledges made to 
the people before an election and the fulfillment 
of them after the election. One may refer to the 
address as a directory of the measures of his ad- 
ministration as governor. After mentioning the 
fact that the nomination had come to him un- 
solicited and that he was under no pledges of any 
kind to prevent him from serving the people of 
the state with singleness of purpose, he said: 

"I take the three great questions before us to 
be reorganization and economy in administration, 
the equahzation of taxation, and the control of 
corporations. There are other very important 
questions that confront us, as they confront all 
the other states of the Union in this day of read- 
justment: the question of the proper liability of 
employers, for example; the question of corrupt 
practices in elections; the question of conserva- 
tion; but the three I have named dominate all 
the rest. It is imperative that we should not 
only master them, but also act upon them, and 
act very definitely. 

"It is first of all necessary that we should act 
in the right spirit. And the right spirit is not a 

[125] 



WOODROW WILSON 



spirit of hostility. We shall not act either justly 
or wisely if we attack established interests as pub- 
lic enemies. There has been too much indictment 
and too little successful prosecution for wrongs 
done. It is easy to condemn wrong and to ful- 
minate against wrong-doers in effective rhetorical 
phrases, but that does not bring either reform or 
ease of mind. . . . 

"The question of the control of corporations 
is a very difficult one, upon which no man can 
speak with confidence ; but some things are plain. 
It is plain, so far as New Jersey is concerned, 
that we must have a public service commission 
with the amplest powers, to oversee and regulate 
the administration of public service corporations 
throughout the state. . . . The regulation of cor- 
porations is the duty of the state much more 
directly than it is the duty of the Government of 
the United States. It is my strong hope that 
New Jersey may lead the way in reform by scru- 
tinizing very carefully the enterprises she con- 
sents to incorporate: their make-up, their objects, 
the basis and method of their capitalization, their 
organization with respect to liability to control 

[126] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

by the state, their conformity to state and federal 
statutes. This can be done, and done effectually. 
I covet for New Jersey the honor of doing it." 
The contrast between such straight talk and 
the vague rhetoric that is the ordinary staple 
of political speech-making made a strong im- 
pression upon the audience and was an auspicious 
start of the campaign. Doctor Wilson went all 
over the state, addressing the people in the same 
direct and simple way, and the progress of the 
campaign attracted national attention. Its cli- 
max was the reply of the candidate to some un- 
usually pungent interrogatories propounded by 
George L. Record, a veteran reformer whose 
persistent agitation had made him well known 
throughout the state. The interrogatories were 
sharply pointed so as to either insure definite 
reply or else make plain the candidate's avoidance 
of the issue. The answers were as pointed as the 
questions, and every issue was met squarely. 
Many of the questions were disposed of by simply 
replying "yes," but when further explanation 
was required to make his position clear that was 
supplied. The interrogatories did not deal with 

[127] 



WOODROW WILSON 



abstractions but with particulars. Doctor Wil- 
son was asked not merely whether he was opposed 
to the boss system, but further whether he was 
opposed to the domination of certain individuals 
mentioned by name. And he replied that he was. 

"I have made it my business for years to ob- 
serve and understand that system, and I hate it 
as thoroughly as I understand it. You are quite 
right in sa^dng that the system is bi-partisan; 
that it constitutes 'the most dangerous condition 
in the public life of our state and nation today' ; 
and that it has virtually, for the time being, 
'destroyed representative government and put in 
its place a government of privilege.' I would 
propose to abolish it by the above reforms, by 
the election to office of men who will refuse to 
submit to it and bend all their energies to break 
it up, and by pitiless publicity." 

As to what his relations would be to his own 
party managers. Doctor Wilson remarked that if 
he should be elected he would understand that to 
mean that he had been chosen leader of the party 
"and the direct representative of the whole peo- 
ple in the conduct of the Government." 

[128] 



J 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

JNIr. Record was such a prominent figure and 
the catechism he had prepared was so trenchant 
that pubhc attention was riveted upon the affair. 
The way in which Doctor Wilson met the test 
was decisive in its effect upon the campaign. In 
the November election he received a plurality of 
49,056, although only two years before the Re- 
publican pluralit}^ was 82,776. The legislature, 
in which there had been a Republican majority 
of 31 on joint ballot, in a total of 81, had now 
a Democratic majority of 21 on joint ballot, al- 
though the Republicans retained control of the 
Senate. 

Almost immediately after the election Gover- 
nor Wilson was confronted by a situation com- 
mon enough in American politics and readily 
intelligible by those who understand American 
politics, but it is so hard for the uninitiated to 
comprehend that some general explanation is de- 
sirable, particularly since the matter is essential 
to a just estimate of the entire course of Gov- 
ernor Wilson's administration. All American 
constitutions have been deeply impressed by the 
old French doctrine of the separation of the pow- 

[129] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ers, construed as meaning not only that the pow- 
ers should be separately constituted, but that they 
should also be disconnected as far as possible 
in their actual operation. This theory has long 
since been extinct in Europe and has no place 
in the constitution of the present French re- 
public, but its most complete and logical formu- 
lation is to be found in the French constitution 
of 1791, adopted during the revolutionary period. 
In that it is declared to be the exclusive function 
of the representative assembly to propose and 
enact the laws, while the Executive "can only in- 
vite the legislative body to take the matter under | 
consideration." This also describes a traditional I 
opinion of the proper attitude of an American " 
executive, although it is not so described in 
American constitutions. The constitution of ^ 
New Jersey, however, approximates the French 
revolutionary type in this respect more closely 
than other American state constitutions. It 
says that the governor "shall communicate by 
message to the legislature at the opening of each 
session, and at such other times as he may deem 
necessary, the condition of the state, and recom- 

[130] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 



mend such measures as he may deem expedient." 
The usual American practice is to treat this duty 
of recommendation as amounting to no more than 
a written request that the matter be taken under 
consideration. This tends to make legislation a 
matter of casual combination and adjustment 
among the particular interests rej)resented by the 
members of the legislature. To subject the pro- 
cess to management and control, lobby influence 
has been systematized in American politics. The 
practical guidance and leadership omitted by the 
constitutional system is privately supplied by 
groups of undertakers who find their account in 
engrossing and dispensing political influence. 
Although the traditions and prejudices of the 
people are enlisted in support of the constitu- 
tional system that provides such undertakers with 
their opportunities, yet at the same time the peo- 
ple resent the use made of those opportunities. 
In Mr. Record's campaign catechism he referred 
to one such group as "the Republican Board of 
Guardians" and to another as "the Democratic 
Overlords." 

Usually the election of a political outsider con- 

[131] 



WOODROW WILSON 



firms the authority of such undertakers, since 
unfamiliaritv with official method inchnes him to 
be receptive of assistance and advice that will 
be tactfully proffered, and to be acquiescent in 
their mediation of his relations with the legisla- 
ture, not merely from its convenience, but also 
from scruples as to the constitutional propriety 
of making" any direct exertion of his official influ- 
ence. Some such expectations seem to have been 
entertained when the university president was 
elected governor of the state, but they were soon 
dissipated. Governor Wilson soon showed that 
he was familiar with practical politics and could 
find his way about without a guide. He was 
familiar with the nature of all the constitutional 
obstructions that could be put in his way and 
was ready to cope with them. Before he was 
inaugurated as governor he was involved in a 
struggle that incidentally involved the question 
of party leadership, and as soon as he perceived 
that the issue was impending he raised it him- 
self. 

At that time United States Senators were 
elected by state legislatures. The New Jersey 

[132] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 



legislature had passed a law by which the party 
nomination to the office was to be made at a 
popular election in which all members of the 
party were entitled to vote. The candidate chosen 
at the direct primary could therefore plead party 
obligation in his favor and yet the legislature was 
not legally bound. It was contended that the 
direct primary was a new thing and had not been 
taken seriously by the people; that had it been, 
a different sort of man would have been nomi- 
nated ; and that it was a matter for the legislature 
to decide without interference or dictation. It 
became known that an influential candidate was 
in the field against the primary nominee. Gov- 
ernor Wilson advised the new candidate to with- 
draw, and when he refused to comply, forthwith 
made an open appeal to the people. He said : 

"I realize the delicacy of taking any part in 
the discussion of the matter. As governor of 
New Jersey I shall have no part in the choice of 
Senator. Legally speaking it is not my duty 
even to give advice with regard to the choice. 
But there are other duties beside legal duties. 
The recent campaign has put me in an unusual 

[133] 



WOODROW WILSON 



position. I offered, if elected, to be the political 
spokesman and advisor of the people. I even 
asked the voters who did not care to make their 
choice of governor upon that understanding not 
to vote for me. I believe that the choice was 
made upon that understanding and I cannot es- 
cape the responsibility involved. I have no desire 
to escape it. It is my duty to say, with a full 
sense of the peculiar responsibility of my posi- 
tion, what I deem to be the obligation of the legis- 
lature to do in this gravely important matter.' 
He then referred to the fact that at a legally 
held direct primary a party candidate for the 
Senatorship had been nominated, and he held 
that that was conclusive upon the legislative! 

II* (* j1 .1 ii AT 1--J._ J 



representatives of the party. "Absolute good 
faith in dealing with the people, an unhesitating 
fidelity to every principle avowed, is the highest 
law of political morality under a constitutional 
government." 

This public statement, made a month before 
the meeting of the legislature, was followed up 
by a vigorous campaign, during which Governor 
Wilson again went on the stump and also com- 

[134] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

municated directly with the members of the legis- 
lature. In so doing he antagonized long-estab- 
lished political interests that had been active and 
influential in compassing his own nomination as 
governor, provoking from them the charge of 
ingratitude and exciting their lasting enmity, 
but he did not flinch from his ideals of duty, and 
the action of the legislature accorded with his 
advice. 

The definition of his attitude that he made on 
this issue extended also to the legislative issues 
of the session. He actively exerted his influence 
in shaping and conducting legislation. Early in 
the session he was charged with holding a secret 
conference at a New York hotel, in which George 
L. Record, the progressive Republican leader, 
took part. Governor Wilson at once admitted 
that a conference had been held, and gave the 
names of those present. He said that it was a 
continuation of the policy he had followed ever 
since his election, of "consulting everyone who 
was interested in reforms which concern the whole 
state." He added: 

"Mr. Record is well known to be one of the 

[135] 



WOODROW WILSON 



best informed men in this state with regard to 
the details involved in most of the reforms pro- 
posed. He is particularly versed in legislation 
elsewhere, as well as in New Jersey, with regard 
to ballot reform and corrupt practices, as well as 
with regard to the regulation of primaries. He 
generously consented to put his unusual store of 
information at the service of the conference, which 
was non-partisan in its purpose and was in the 
public interest." 

In its effect upon legislation the election of 
Governor Wilson was, indeed, like a channel cut 
through a swamp. Waters that had been vainly 
seeking an outlet now poured into it from all 
quarters. Reform elements in the Republican 
party moved towards him with offers of service 
that were freely utilized, along with those coming 
from his own party associates. Governor Wil- 
son's individual function became chiefly that of 
selection and guidance. His party had some ex- 
ceptionally strong and capable representatives in 
the legislature, who could champion the party 
policy with vigor and effect, and although the 
party was in a minority in the state senate, suffi- 

[136] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

cient. Republican support was obtained to admit ' 
of the enactment of a series of reform measures. 
A typical instance of Governor Wilson's man- 
agement is afforded by a legislative conference 
held on the evening of March 8, 1911. The sub- 
jects considered were the election reform bill, the 
employers' liability law, the public utilities com- 
mission bill and the corrupt practices act. The 
conference lasted over four hours, the election 
bill occupying the most time. Governor Wilson 
took an active part in the discussion and an agree- 
ment was reached which insured the passage of 
ail four measures. Governor Wilson himself was 
made a member of a committee appointed to 
draft the election reform bill in accord with the 
conclusions reached at the conference. As a re- 
sult of the impartial consultation that was sought 
and the expert assistance secured in perfecting 
details, all these measures were embodied in such 
mature and considerate enactments that they im- 
mediately took rank as models. The employers' 
liability law was a particularly difficult measure, 
inasmuch as the juristic basis of action was ex- 
tremely uncertain. A carefully drawn act drafted 

[137] 



WOODROW WILSON 



upon principles which had been successfully 
applied in English jurisprudence was declared 
unconstitutional by the New York Court of 
Appeals in 1910, and doubts were expressed by 
legal authorities whether the courts would permit 
any liability to be put upon employers that they 
themselves would not voluntarily accept. It was 
generally recognized that if Governor Wilson's 
administration was able to handle this issue suc- 
cessfully the results would be far-reaching in 
their effect upon American jurisprudence. A 
legal magazine, the Green Bag, in its issue for 
May, 1911, pointed to the New Jersey statute as 
providing a practical solution of the problem. 
That statute introduced an elective system of 
compensation, under which a contract is pre- 
sumed to exist unless either the employee or the 
employer gives notice to the contrary. The 
Green Bag remarked : 

"The outcome of the New Jersey experiment 
will be watched with interest. We believe that 
under an elective system a large number of in- 
dustries are likely to come voluntarily under the 
act, on account of its reciprocal benefits. Any- 

[138] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 



thing tending, by proper means, to diminish the 
volume of personal injury litigation, and to 
afford simpler and more certain relief to em- 
ployees without injustice to the employer is 
strongly supported by every consideration of 
public policy." 

As a matter of fact the New Jersey statute did 
in fact accomplish all these benefits. The law 
was not only carefully drawn, but it was also 
carefully applied. A conmiission was appointed 
to supervise its operation, and the matter was 
so judiciously handled that acceptance of the 
system by the industries of the state soon became 
general. In its issue for September, 1912, the 
Green Bag summed up the situation as follows: 

"More than 90 per cent of the employers of 
industrial labor in New Jersey have virtually sub- 
scribed to the provisions of the elective workmen's 
compensation act now in operation. The dis- 
favor of manufacturers, intense when the law was 
in the throes of enactment, has been practically 
ehminated after studying the operation for the 
last twelve months. It is said that there are now 
only two large manufacturing concerns in the 

[139] 



WOODROW WILSON 



state not operating under the provisions of the 
compensation schedule of the act; of those, one 
has a compensation rate of its own, in excess, in 
most classes of accidents, of the state's sched- 
ule." 

Indeed, it may be remarked as a general char- 
acteristic of the measures enacted during Gover- 
nor Wilson's administration, that they have 
worked well in practice. The direct primary 
law and the corrupt practices act have met with 
general acceptance as established features of the 
political system. The stringent control over cor- 
porations established by the law creating the pub- 
lic utilities commission is now generally recog- 
nized as a salutary extension of public authority 
which will be a permanent administrative func- 
tion. Another signal event in Governor Wilson's 
administration was a reorganization of the school 
system of the State. A large board, constituted 
on the basis of district representation, was abol- 
ished, and was succeeded by a small unpaid com- 
mission of large power, representing the State 
as a whole, working in conjunction with a state 
superintendent. In selecting this superintendent, 

[140] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

Governor Wilson gave a shock to local office- 
seekers by going out of the State to obtain an 
educational expert. 

While he was activel}^ championing the passage 
of these measures, in which he had to contend with 
ingenious and persistent opposition, he had also 
occasion to send in some veto messages. One of 
these made a firm assertion of home rule princi- 
ples. A bill had been passed providing for an 
increase in the pay of firemen and other em- 
ployees in municipal service. It was vetoed on 
the ground that "the bill deprives the proper re- 
sponsible officers of the city of the power to deter- 
mine whether or not the expenditure provided for 
is within the resources of the taxpayers or is a 
proper measure of local administration." 

Governor Wilson asserted the same principle 
of home rule with respect to the liquor traffic. 
Under date of Maj^ 1, 1911, he wrote a letter 
making the following statement of his position: 

"I am in favor of local option. I am a thor- 
ough believer in local self-government and be- 
lieve that every self-governing community which 
constitutes a social unit should have the right to 

[141] 



V/OODROW WILSON 



control the matter of the regulation or the with- 
holding of licenses. 

"But the questions involved are social and 
moral, not political, and are not susceptible of 
being made parts of a party program. When- 
ever they have been made the subject-matter of 
party contests, they have cut the lines of party 
organization and party action athwart, to the 
utter confusion of political action in every other 
field. They have thrown every other question, 
however important, into the background and 
have made constructive party action impossible 
for long years together. 

"So far as I am myself concerned, therefore, I 
can never consent to have the question of local 
option made an issue between political parties in 
this state. My judgment is very clear in this 
matter. I do not believe that party programs of 
the highest consequence to the political life of the 
state and of the nation ought to be thrust on one 
side and hopelessly embarrassed for long periods 
together by making a political issue of a great 
question which is essentially non-political, non- 
partisan, moral and social in its nature." 

[142] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 



The work of this memorable session of the New 
Jersey legislature reached a brilliant conclusion 
in the passage of a bill enabling cities to adopt 
the commission plan of government. The bill is 
optional but a number of New Jersey cities have 
adopted that form of government, including 
Trenton, the state capital. 

The active part taken by Governor Wilson in 
promoting legislation was in accord with constitu- 
tional principles that had been his study all the 
years since he had arrived at manhood. He did 
not act upon impulse, or from casual opportunity, 
but of set purpose and upon mature convictions 
of constitutional propriety. In putting his prin- 
ciples into practice, he had to contend with the 
virulent opposition of a faction in his own party 
incensed by his course in the struggle over the 
United States Senatorship. His action in cau- 
cusing with members of the legislature in regard 
to legislative action was denounced to his face as 
a breach of official propriety and as a violation of 
American principles of constitutional govern- 
ment. 

It is a decided loss to constitutional history 

[143] 



WOODROW WILSON 



that the parhamentary leadership assumed by 
Governor Wilson had to be exercised in the party 
caucus instead of in the open forum in the full 
view and hearing of the people. Something of 
the character of the discussion that took place 
in the party caucus was revealed in newspaper 
reports of the caucus of March 13, 1911, on the 
election reform bill, commonly known as the 
Geran Act. The bill had stuck on the ways and 
when the Governor exerted his influence there 
were some who in effect told him to mind his own 
business. As to this Governor Wilson replied 
that it was his clear prerogative under the state 
constitution to suggest at any time measures for 
their consideration, and that it was clearl}^ within 
the meaning of the constitution that his sugges- 
tions might be in the form of regularly formu- 
lated bills. Therefore it would have been within 
his choice to send the pending primary and elec- 
tion law to them in a special message and ask 
them to vote upon it directly. 

Having vindicated his constitutional right to 
recommend measures, he discussed the pending 
measure on its merits. He said that so far as his 

[144] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 



own preference v/as concerned he would greatly 
relish going to the people on the issue, except it 
would seem to bring him into collision with and 
oblige him to criticize the action of certain mem- 
bers of the legislature. In conclusion he said : 

"You can turn aside from the measure if you 
choose; you can decline to follow me; you can 
deprive me of office and turn away from me, but 
you cannot deprive me of power so long as I 
steadfastly stand for what I believe to be the 
interests and legitimate demands of the people 
themselves. I beg you to remember, in this which 
promises to be an historic conference, you are 
settling the question of the power or impotence, 
the distinction or the ignominy of the party to 
which the people with singular generosity have 
offered the conduct of their affairs." 

This strikes a note in American politics so rare 
that it sounds new, although precedents in favor 
of such administrative initiative and leadership 
extend to the foundation of the Government. 
The innovation made by Governor Wilson was 
remarkable not so much as a new formulation of 
constitutional principles, as it was for the readi- 

[145] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ness with which he came forward to accept re- 
sponsibiHties which he could have easily avoided, 
and the energy and success with which he asserted 
his leadership. In these respects he set an exam- 
ple which has advanced the standards of official 
behavior. 

From the standpoint of constitutional govern- 
ment it may be noted as a deficiency that Gover- 
nor Wilson's leadership was outside the legis- 
lature, but that was no fault of his. He went 
as far as he had a right to go, and he used such 
means as he could reach. The constitutional 
aspects of the situation were discussed by him 
in a speech delivered at Portland, Oregon, May 
18, 1911. It was the first important public ad- 
dress made by him after the close of the legisla- 
tive session and its experiences naturally in- 
formed his remarks. The following gives an 
idea of the views he expressed: 

"The increasing dependence of the country 
upon its executive officers is thrusting upon them 
a double function. They must undertake the 
business of agitation, that is to say, the business 
of forming and leading opinion, and it will not 

[146] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

be very effectual or serviceable for them to do 
that unless they take the next step and make 
bold to formulate the measures by which opinion 
is to be put into effect. 

"Moreover, it is still further belittling to our 
legislature that the discussions led by our execu- 
tives should be held outside of the legislative 
chambers. Undoubtedly the hope of the imme- 
diate future is that by getting rid of machine 
control and the control of secret interests of other 
kinds inside our legislative chambers, they may 
thoroughly regain their self-possession and their 
self-respect, and in regaining these may return 
to their one-time practice of debate and put every- 
thing they do to the public ordeal. In that way 
lies the recovery of their prestige. . . ." 

Among those who knew Governor Wilson's 
views there was an expectation that before his 
term expired he would do something towards sys- 
tematizing the relations between the executive 
and the legislature, particularly with respect to 
the process of recommending legislation. The 
lack of any public means by which the administra- 
tion may propose and bring to determination the 

[147] 



mattarwaimMxm 



WOODROW WILSON 



particular measures recommended, provides an 
opportunity for private enterprise to operate in 
this field. This is the explanation of the im- 
portance of the lobby in American legislative ses- 
sions, and also of its ineradicable character despite 
all opposition to it. It is in fact an irregular 
and impure performance of a necessary public 
function, and it was not a mere coincidence that 
when Governor Wilson asserted administrative 
initiative in legislation the professional lobby dis- 
appeared. The corporations that had been in the 
habit of feeing agents to look after their interests 
in the legislative hurly-burly promptly desisted 
when it was seen that a responsible direction of 
affairs had been established. But Governor Wil- 
son did not have the opportunity of introducing 
any formal change of system as the necessary 
basis of political support could not be obtained. 
Although his own views on such matters are 
clearly defined, he is wary of any assumption of 
authority unless it is clearly an incident of his 
position as a public trustee. Party grounds upon 
which he could act in this important but delicate 
matter were provided by the Democratic State 

[148] 




WooDROw Wilson, Age 54 

The picture was taken in 1910, after his election as governor of New 

Jersey 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

Convention which met October 3, 1911. Gover- 
nor Wilson himself was a member and served 
on the platform committee. Among the resolu- 
tions adopted by the convention was the follow- 
ing: 

"We pledge ourselves to a revision of the rules 
of order of the Senate and General Assembly of 
the State of New Jersey so as to make them more 
conformable to the state constitution, more fit to 
protect the people against the evils of slipshod 
lawmaking, and more apt to secure proper legis- 
lative provision for the general welfare. The 
conditions under which power is exercised are 
more important than the conditions under which 
power is gained, and the work which the Demo- 
cratic party of this state has done and is doing 
to restore popular government will be incomplete 
unless accompanied by appropriate reforms in 
legislative methods." 

With this party mandate to warrant the exer- 
tion of his influence. Governor Wilson might have 
been able to apply himself with as great energy 
and success in improving the whole legislative 
process as he had displayed in carrying through 

[149] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the legislative program of his party, but the op- 
portunity was not forthcoming. In New Jersey 
the peculiar arrangement exists that representa- 
tives are elected not by districts but by county 
general ticket. Hence, although the Democratic 
party had a plurality of 3,103 in the State in 
the 1911 elections, the Republican party obtained 
control of both branches of the legislature. This 
turn-over was chiefly due to one county, in which 
the party organization was controlled by the fac- 
tion that had been fighting Governor Wilson ever 
since he took the stand he did on the senatorship 
question. Its twelve members were transferred 
from the Democratic to the Republican side. 
New Jersey has annual legislative sessions and 
only during the first year of his term did Gover- 
nor Wilson have a legislative majority in political 
accord with him. He met the situation frankly 
and made the best of it. In his message to the 
legislature which met in January, 1912, he said: 
"When the legislative session opens we become 
colleagues in a common service, and our standard 
is not party advantage but the welfare of New 
Jersey. We are, first of all, citizens and public 

[150] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

servants; our party differences are secondary to 
our duty as representatives and trustees. I ven- 
ture upon this preface to my recommendations 
in order to afford myself the opportunity to say 
with how much pleasure I shall cooperate with 
the present legislature in carrying out every pro- 
gram that is judged to be for the common benefit. 
It is my duty as governor of the state and repre- 
sentative of all its people, to be the leader of my 
party in the state, indeed, but not a partisan 
or a strategist for mere party benefit. I am glad 
to think, therefore, that the matters to which I 
shall call your attention do not lie within the field 
of party debate. They are matters wliich we can 
approach without party bias or prejudice. 
Whatever differences of judgment may arise 
with regard to them, they need have no flavor 
of party feeling about them." 

The leading topic of this message was the 
necessity of reducing to economic system the cha- 
otic miscellany of state boards and commissions. 
He suggested the creation of an economy and 
efficiency commission, and remarked that in his 
judgment "the majority of the commission 

[151] 



WOODROW WILSON 



should be experienced and trusted business men, 
and they should have the advice of men who have 
made a special study of scientific efficiency in 
practical administration." The legislature, how- 
ever, preferred to turn the matter over to a com- 
mission, in part appointed by the President of 
the Senate, in part by the Speaker of the House, 
and in part by the Governor. The efforts of this 
tripartite commission did not effect any change 
of system. In view of the number and strength 
of the vested interests that would be disturbed, no 
systematic reorganization of state departments is 
ever likely to be accomplished except through 
such a concentration of agency and an energy 
of purpose as Governor Wilson might have sup- 
plied, had party opportunity brought the matter 
within his control. 

The leading topic of Governor Wilson's second 
annual message, transmitted on January 14, 
1913, was the need of better control of corpora- 
tions. After pointing out the laxity of the exist- 
ing system and the resultant abuses, he urged: 

"It is our duty and our present opportunity 
to amend the statutes of the state, not only in this 

[152] 



GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 



matter, but also in such a way as to provide 
some responsible official supervision of the whole 
process of incorjDoration and provide, in addition, 
salutary checks upon unwarranted and fictitious 
increases of capital and the issuance of securities 
not based upon actual bona fide valuation. The 
honesty and soundness of business alike depend 
upon such safeguards. No legitimate business 
will be injured or harmfully restricted by them. 
These are matters which affect the honor and 
good faith of the state. We should act upon 
them at once and with clear purpose." 

In pursuance of this recommendation bills 
were prepared which from their number became 
popularly known as the "Seven Sisters." The ac- 
tion of New Jersey in refusing asylum to bogus 
corporations and get-rich-quick schemes at- 
tracted national attention, and the laws are serv- 
ing as legislative models in other states. 

In this message, jury reform was energetically 
commended to the attention of the legislature, 
now again Democratic in both branches. On 
February 25, 1913, he sent in a brief special mes- 
sage in which he said: 

[153] 



WOODROW WILSON 



"JMany honorable and notable men have occu- 
pied the office of sheriff in our several counties; 
many men of the highest character now fill that 
office, but again and again by obtaining control 
of the office of sheriff the interests which have 
corrupted this state, which have defied the laws, 
which have built up selfish private interests, which 
have sought to get the state in the clutch of per- 
sona] political machines, have bent the law to their 
uses ; and I speak with absolute knowledge when 
I say that I know the public opinion of this state 
now cries out for and demands reform of no hesi- 
tating or doubtful character, which shall take the 
selection of grand juries out of the hands of the 
sheriffs and place it elsewhere." 

This appeal, which bore f iTiit in the legislation 
of the session, was Governor Wilson's last im- 
portant official act as the New Jersey executive. 
On the same day he filed his resignation, to take 
effect March 1, 1913. 



CHAPTER VI 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

FOR convenience of examination, Woodrow 
Wilson's career as governor of New Jersey 
has been considered in its entirety. In its chrono- 
logical order it overlapped his candidacy for the 
presidency of the United States and his election 
to that office. Indeed, the movement whose force 
transferred him from the presidency of Princeton 
to the governorship of New Jersey had the presi- 
dency of the nation as its ultimate objective. The 
movement was remarkable for its spontaneity. 
Mr. Wilson had no organization and made no 
effort to create one. A motion nominating him 
for the presidency was made in the Democratic 
State Convention of 1911, of which he was a 
member, but he opposed it as a proceeding incon- 
sistent with the principle of the direct primary. 
He said: 

"While I realize that this resolution may be 
taken as an expression of confidence by the gen- 

[155] 



WOODROW WILSON 



tlemen who vote for it, I nevertheless feel that 
we would be making* a mistake to make this use 
of this convention when we have provided so 
much more appropriate means of finding out the 
preference of the people with regard to national 
affairs. So I enter my earnest but respectful 
protest to this meeting and move that the resolu- 
tion lie upon the table." 

At one time it looked as if the resolution would 
be passed anyhow, but Governor Wilson's in- 
sistence prevailed. His only direct connection 
with the canvass was to give some increase to his 
usual practice of addressing the public frankly 
and fully upon public issues. His course as 
governor of New Jersey had attracted national 
attention and invitations poured in upon him 
whose acceptance involved visits to the different 
sections of the country, including the Pacific 
slope. Everywhere there was a strong movement 
of popular sentiment in his favor, and national 
organization was provided for it by individual 
action quite as spontaneous. William F. JNIc- 
Combs, Jr., a Princeton graduate of the class of 
1898, practicing law in New York, of his own 

[156] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

motion started a bureau in aid of Wilson's can- 
didacy. From the most modest beginnings the 
organization thus effected spread over the coun- 
try, and in every state local committees sprang 
up, working in correspondence with the Mc- 
Combs bureau. This amateur organization had 
to cope with the experienced campaigners who 
were managing presidential booms of the regula- 
tion type. The schism that had developed in the 
Republican party had caused a general belief 
that the Democratic nominee would be the next 
president, and there was a large field of candi- 
dates. The eventual selection of Governor Wil- 
son to be that nominee is to be attributed to the 
pervasive influence of the strong popular senti- 
ment in his favor. It permeated delegations com- 
mitted to other candidates, so that when the con- 
vention met at Baltimore the strength of the Wil- 
son movement was far greater than appeared on 
the surface. Nevertheless his nomination was 
not regarded as probable by most political ob- 
servers and in the end it came rather unexpect- 
edly. The balloting was preceded by an event in 
which Governor Wilson made a characteristic 

[157] 



WOODROW WILSON 



display of his unflinching attachment to principle 
at a time when calculations of personal expedi- 
ency would have counseled a different course. 
Indeed, in pursuing the course he did, he had 
to reject the advice of sincere friends who were 
laboring to effect his nomination. His action was 
generally regarded as fatal to his chances and he 
himself was quite prepared to take that view of 
it, but nevertheless he thought it the right thing 
to do, be the personal consequences what they 
might. In a struggle that took place between the 
progressive and conservative elements of the con- 
vention over the temporary organization. Gover- 
nor Wilson alone among the candidates took an 
open stand against the existing party control. 
He declared: 

"The Baltimore convention is to be a conven- 
tion of progressives, of men who are progressive 
in principle and by conviction. It must, if it is 
not to be put in a wrong light before the country, 
express its convictions in its organization, and in 
its choice of the men who are to speak for it." 

This action in a measure antagonized the exist- 
ing official management of the party organiza- 

[158] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



tion, which emerged victorious^ from the trial 
of strength on that issue, and controlled the or- 
ganization of the convention. The situation was 
such that Wilson's nomination now seemed to be 
out of the range of practical politics, but when 
the balloting began, the convention drifted into a 
deadlock, its sessions were unusually protracted, 
and meanwhile from all over the country came 
manifestations of popular sentiment in favor of 
Wilson. Able political tacticians did their best 
to arrange a combination upon some other can- 
didate, but they were unable to withstand the 
rising tide. Balloting began on June 28 and con- 
tinued until July 2, when Woodrow Wilson was 
nominated on the forty-sixth ballot. 

Governor Wilson received the formal notifica- 
tion at Seagirt, New Jersey, where the state has 
provided a summer home for its Chief Executive, 
although it does not provide him with a residence 
at Trenton, the capital city. In making his 
formal reply the candidate gave a characteristic 
instance of his entire frankness by remarking that 
he did not know enough about currency reform 
''to be dogmatic about it," but the plan adopted 

[159] 



WOODROW WILSON 



should be one that would meet the requirements 
of merchants and farmers as well as of bankers, 
and he referred incidentally to the existence of 
conditions whose "existence gives rise to the sus- 
picion of a 'Money Trust,' a concentration of the 
control of credit, which may at any time become 
infinitely dangerous to free enterprises." With 
regard to the general situation he observed: 

"The nation has awakened to a sense of neg- 
lected ideals and neglected duties ; to a conscious- 
ness that the rank and file of the people find life 
very hard to sustain, that her young men find 
opportunity embarrassed, and that her older men 
find business difficult to renew and maintain be- 
cause of circumstances of privilege and private 
advantage which have interlaced their subtle 
threads throughout almost every part of the 
framework of our present law. She has awak- 
ened to the knowledge that she has lost certain 
cherished liberties and wasted priceless resources 
which she had solemnly undertaken to hold in 
tinist for posterity and for all mankind; and to 
the conviction that she stands confronted with an 
occasion for constiTictive statesmanship such as 

[160] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

has not arisen since the great days in which her 
Government was set up. 

"What is there to do?" he asked. In reply he 
instanced "two great things." One was "to set 
up the rule of justice and right" in matters that 
concern the present, such as the tariff, trust regu- 
lation, currency and labor laws. The other was 
to protect our people and our resources, now and 
in the future, by proper adjustment of questions 
of conservation, development, and trade. Private 
interests have had too much to do with governing 
us, and we must "effect a great readjustment and 
get the forces of the whole people once more into 
play." Xevertheless "w^e need no revolution, we 
need no excited change ; we need only a new point 
of view and a new method and spirit of counsel." 

While advocating immediate downward revi- 
sion of the tariff he held that it should be man- 
aged so as not to disturb business too suddenly 
or too radically. "It should begin w^ith the 
schedules which have been most obviously used 
to kill competition and to raise prices." In so 
far as the high cost of living has been arranged 
by private understanding, it may be checked by 

[161] 



WOODROW WILSON 



proper regulation of trusts and monopolies. He 
observed : 

"Big business is not dangerous because it is 
big, but because its bigness is an unwholesome 
inflation created by privileges and exemptions I 
which it ought not to enjoy. While competition 
can not be created by statutory enactment, it can 
in large measure be revived by changing the laws 
and forbidding the practices that killed it, and by 
enacting laws that will give it heart and occasion 
again. ... It will be necessary to supplement 
the present law with such laws, both civil and 
criminal, as will effectually punish and prevent i 
those methods, adding such other laws as may be 
necessary to provide suitable and adequate judi- 
cial processes, whether civil or criminal, to dis- 
close them and follow them to final verdict and 
judgment. They must be specifically and di- 
rectly met by law as they develop." 

The conclusion of his speech of acceptance was 
regarded as an apt reference to the personal 
phase of the contest, which seemed likely to be 
charged with unusual bitterness from the trian- 
gular contest that had developed. He remarked : 

[162] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



"It is not a partisan fight we are entering 
upon. ... A presidential campaign may easily 
degenerate into a mere personal contest and so 
lose its real dignity and significance. There is 
no indispensable man. The Government will not 
collapse and go to pieces if any one of the gen- 
tlemen who are seeking to be entrusted with its 
guidance should be left at home." 

The disruption of the Republican party by 
the Progressive movement caused Governor Wil- 
son to receive an extraordinary majority in the 
electoral college. He received 435 electoral votes 
as against 88 for Roosevelt and 8 for Taft. He 
had a plurality of 2,134,499 in the popular vote 
but no majority over all, in which respect his case 
was like that of Abraham Lincoln. The distribu- 
tion of the popular vote was as follows : Wilson, 
6,303,063; Roosevelt, 4,168,564; Taft, 3,439,529. 
The most remarkable feature of the election was 
really not the success of Wilson, but was the 
strength displayed by Roosevelt with a new party 
and an improvised organization. 

Governor Wilson took an active part in the 
campaign, going before the people and discussing 

[163] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the issues with the same moderation and good 
sense that had been displayed in his speech of 
acceptance. The period between the nomination 
and the election was that in which his duties as 
governor were lightest. An anomaly of our po- 
litical system is that after an administration is 
dismissed from power by the people it continues 
to hold office through still another legislative ses- 
sion. The administration that had received only 
8 electoral votes remained in office during four 
months after its rejection at the polls, and the 
Congress whose successors had been elected met 
and held a legislative session before passing off 
the scene. In ordinary course a newly elected 
Congress does not convene until over a year after 
the election. It once happened in recent years 
that a general election in Canada took place 
within a few days of the presidential election in 
this country. The Dominion Parliament met and 
held an important session in which tariff action 
was taken, completed its business, and adjourned 
before our Congress, elected at the same time, 
had ever met. The case is one among various 
instances of the small actual regard for demo- 

[164] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

cratic principles shown in the political arrange- 
ments of the United States. An incidental re- 
sult was that Governor Wilson was left to con- 
tinue his work in the state for months after he 
was elected President. A new legislature had 
been elected at the same time, and it was Demo- 
cratic in both branches. Governor Wilson seized 
the opportunity to further the legislative pro- 
gram of his party, particularly measures to regu- 
late corporation behavior, and he was busily en- 
gaged in the discharge of his responsibilities as a 
New Jersey official up to within a few days of 
the time when he took the oath of office as Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

The announcement of his Cabinet was, on the 
whole, well received, although in some resj^ects 
it occasioned surprise. This was in part due to 
the provincialism that is a marked characteristic 
of American politics, due mainly to the fact that 
the country has many political centers, none dom- 
inant. A man may have recognized eminence in 
one section while elsewhere even well-informed 
people ask, "Who is he?" Then again the con- 
ditions under which the President must act are 

[165] 



WOODROW WILSON 



not generally understood. The existence of his 
constitutional functions is popularly taken to 
imply the existence of appropriate means for 
their exercise, which is not really the case. It 
is the duty of the President to "give to the Con- 
gress information on the state of the Union, and 
recommend to their consideration such measures 
as he shall judge necessary and expedient," but 
there is no settled way in which he can get his 
measures before Congress and recommend them 
to consideration. Indeed, it is the habit of a 
President's opponents to contend that he really 
has no active power of recommendation, but that 
he is in the plight of the French king, incapable 
of doing more than to request that the subject be 
taken under consideration. The actual language 
of the Constitution makes it impervious to this 
revolutionary doctrine, although it is frequently 
brought forward. Nevertheless, a President finds 
himself in a very insecure position in the actual 
exercise of his constitutional initiative, and the 
precedents vary. In his first term Washington 
was able to deal with Congress directly, but at 
that time Congress had no system of standing 

[166] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



committees and it relied upon the services of the 
administration to prepare business for its con- 
sideration. After the committee system had been 
developed, it became for a time political usage 
to allow the administration to arrange the im- 
portant committees, and to place its measures 
before Congress through their agency. This sys- 
tem lasted until the administration of John 
Quincy Adams, when it was swept away in the 
course of the new party aligmnents of that period, 
and since then there has been no direct mode by 
which a President can obtain action by Congress 
upon his recommendations. An indirect mode 
has, however, been developed through party 
agency. Nominating conventions and party plat- 
forms, which are institutions peculiar to the 
United States, have been evolved to bridge the 
gap between the Executive and the legislature, 
and to subject them to conmion purpose. The 
President thus possesses an actual initiative of 
great influence, but he derives it from his positiorL 
as the head of his party and the enforcer of its 
discipline, and he reaches Congress through the 
loyalty of his party associates. The connecting^ 

[167] 



WOODROW WILSON 



link between the Executive and Congress is the 
party caucus. 

The actual situation had been conspicuously 
exhibited by what was known as "the revolt 
against Cannonism." Through his power to ap- 
point committees, and to determine what meas- 
ures should and what should not receive consid- 
eration, the Speaker was the arbiter of public 
policy. Speaker Cannon did not originate the 
power he exercised. It was rooted in the neces- 
sity of having some means of reaching and dis- 
posing of the public business. It has been cal- 
culated that it would take sixty years to consider 
in regular order the bills introduced during a ses- 
sion of Congress. The system, however, placed 
the actual control of public policy in the hands of 
a small group of politicians whose power rested 
upon advantages of position and not upon public 
trust and confidence. It excited such antagonism 
that it was suddenly overthrown by the parlia- 
mentary revolution of March 19, 1910, which 
took away from the Speaker the appointment of 
the committees and ousted him from membership 
on the Committee on Rules. These changes 

[168] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

transferred the seat of legislative authority to 
the party caucus, under whose direction the Com- 
mittee on Rules acts. It should be understood 
that owing to the congested state of the calendars, 
it is practically impossible to reach and dispose of 
important legislative measures except under 
special orders reported by the Committee on 
Rules, which has power to bring in a report at 
any time and obtain consideration for it to the 
exclusion of other business until it is disposed of. 
These special orders may fix the time when the 
measure concerned shall be taken up, the length 
of time allotted to debate, and the time when it 
shall be put to vote. It used to be that this robust 
agency was controlled by the Speaker through a 
small Committee on Rules, consisting of himself 
and a few colleagues selected by himself. Under 
the new system the party caucus elects the Ways 
and Means Committee which acts as a committee 
of selection in arranging all the other committee 
assignments, including the Committee on Rules 
whose membership has been increased to ten. The 
caucus exercises supervision over all the commit- 
tees and the Committee on Rules acts under its 

[169] 



WOODROW WILSON 



orders. Although in the election of caucus offi- 
cers and of officers of the House a majority of 
those voting binds the entire caucus, it is provided 
that a two-thirds vote of those present shall be 
necessary to bind the caucus on a question "in- 
volving party policy or principle," and moreover 
no member shall be bound "upon questions in- 
volving a construction of the Constitution of the 
United States or upon which he made contrary 
pledges to his constituents prior to his elec- 
tion." 

Under the old system the ability of the Presi- 
dent to obtain actual consideration of the meas- 
ures recommended by him depended upon the 
favor of the Speaker; under the present system 
it depends upon the favor of the caucus, and its 
good will must be a controlling purpose in the 
formation of the Cabinet. Hence the selections 
made should not be taken as the expression of the 
President's own preferences, but as his recogni- 
tion of the conditions under which the adminis- 
tration had to be conducted. If the administra- 
tion had, of its own right, as is the case in Swit- 
zerland, the means of proposing measures directly 

[170] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

m . . — I 

to Congress and bringing them to determination, 
a great simplification of political machinery 
would result and different standards of leader- 
ship would be set up. So far as the President 
could himself go, he showed his willingness to 
enter into direct and open relations with Con- 
gress, by reviving Washington's practice of an 
oral address to Congress instead of sending in a 
WTitten message. 

In his inaugural address he mentioned as 
among "the things that ought to be altered": 

"A tariff which cuts us off from our proper 
part in the commerce of the world, violates the 
just principles of taxation, and makes the Gov- 
ernment a facile instrument in the hands of pri- 
vate interests; a banking and currency system 
based upon the necessity of the Government to 
sell its bonds fifty years ago and perfectly adapt- 
ed to concentrating cash and restricting credits; 
an industrial system which, take it on all its sides, 
financial as well as administrative, holds capital 
in leading strings, restricts the liberties and limits 
the opportunities of labor, and exploits without 
renewing or conserving the natural resources of 

[171] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the country; a body of agricultural activities 
never yet given the efficiency of great business 
undertakings or serv^ed as it should be through 
the instrumentality of science taken directly to 
the farm, or afforded the facilities of credit best 
suited to its practical needs; watercourses unde- 
veloj)ed, waste places unreclaimed, forests un- 
tended, fast disappearing without plan or pros- 
pect of renewal, unregarded waste heaps at every 
mine." 

In addition to the material things he empha- 
sized the need of justice in social relations. 

"There can be no equalit}^ of opportunity, the 
first essential of justice in the body politic, if 
men and women and children be not shielded in 
their lives, their very vitalit}^ from the conse- 
quences of great industrial and social processes 
which they cannot alter, control or singly cope 
with. Society must see to it that it does not itself 
ciaish or weaken or damage its own constituent 
parts. The first duty of law is to keep sound the 
society it serves. Sanitary laws, pure-food laws, 
and laws determining conditions of labor which 
individuals are powerless to determine for them- 

[172] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



selves are intimate parts of the very business of 
justice and legal efficiency." 

The conclusion of the address was thrillinof in 
its effect upon the audience and remained mov- 
ing and impressive when it came before the na- 
tion in cold print. He said : 

"The feelings with which we face this new age 
of right and opportunity sweep across our heart- 
strings like some air out of God's own presence, 
where justice and mercy are reconciled and the 
judge and the brother are one. We know our 
task to be no mere task of politics, but a task 
which shall search us through and through, 
whether we be able to understand our time and 
the need of our people, whether we be indeed their 
spokesmen and interpreters, whether we have the 
pure heart to comprehend and the rectified will 
to choose our high course of action. This is not 
a day of triumph ; it is a da}^ of dedication. Here 
muster, not the forces of party, but the forces of 
humanity. Men's hearts wait upon us; men's 
lives hang in the balance ; men's hopes call upon 
us to say what we will do. Who shall live up to 
the great trust ? Who dares fail to try ? I sum- 

[1T3] 



WOODROW WILSON 



mon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward- 
looking men, to my side. God helping me, I 
will not fail them, if they will but counsel and 
sustain me." 

There were no party lines in the favorable re- 
ception extended to the address, but that is in 
accordance with the good-humored practice of 
American politics. Every administration has its 
honeymoon period in which it starts off with the 
good will of everybody. But the response to the 
address was exceptionally marked in appreciation 
of its superiority to partisanship and of its large 

humanity. 

This appreciation extended across the ocean. 
The London Daily Graphic remarked that 
"echoes of his noble address will bring to this 
Old World of ours, in its mad pursuit, inter- 
national uncharitableness, bloated schemes, and 
mihtary holocausts, a welcome reminder of better 
things and manlier strivings." The London 
Daily Chronicle characterized his words as "a 
striking expression of that elevated democracy 
which has long been absent from high politics in 
the United States," and added: "We look for 

[174] 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



the influence of his spirit to spread far beyond 
his own country." 

Although in regular course Congress would 
not have met until December, President Wilson 
convoked it to meet on April 7, so that prompt 
action would be taken for the fulfillment of the 
party's pledges. The scene that was presented 
when Congi^ess met was itself the mark of a new 
era. The hall of the House of Representatives 
had been converted into a forum by the removal 
of desks and the introduction of benches, bring- 
ing members in closer relations so that they could 
hear one another and carry on an intelligent 
discussion of public affairs. And in the midst 
thereof stood the President of the United States, 
delivering his message in person. He occupied 
the reading clerk's desk, immediately in front of 
and somewhat below the Speaker's table, thus ex- 
emplifying his position that "the President of the 
United States is not a mere department of the 
Government, hailing Congress from some isolated 
island of jealous authority," but is "a human 
being, trying to cooperate with other human be- 



ings in a common service." 



[175] 



CHAPTER VII 

TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 

AT the time when Woodrow Wilson entered 
national politics there had been a veritable 
collapse in the legislative function. The Govern- 
ment had apparently lost the power of respond- 
ing to public demands or of redressing public 
grievances. In entering the campaign of 1908 
the Republican party pledged itself for "a revi- 
sion of the tariff by a special session of Congress" 
and as a fulfillment of that pledge the tariff of 
1909 was enacted. The measure as framed by the 
House Committee on Ways and Means was based 
on the principle of protection, but it aimed to 
conform to the rule prescribed by the party plat- 
form, that the measure of the protection should 
be "the difference between the cost of production 
at home and abroad, together with a reasonable 
profit to American industries." Chairman Payne 
in introducing the bill dwelt upon its reasonable- 
ness as a protective measure. But when the bill 

[176] 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 

was before the Senate, 847 amendments were 
adopted, in numerous cases raising duties at the 
instance of particular interests or introducing 
*' jokers" — that is to say, provisions whose actual 
effect was shrewdly concealed. Chairman Payne 
told the House: "Some of these amendments I 
have studied diligently, and I am not able to say 
today whether they raise or lower the rates." The 
generally received explanation of these "jokers" 
was that they were inserted as a favor to par- 
ticular interests which, in consideration of liberal 
campaign contributions, were allowed to write 
the provisions of the tariff in which they were 
interested. Dispassionate examination of the 
facts does not refute the pox)ular opinion. Pro- 
fessor F. W. Taussig in his standard "Tariff 
History of the United States" remarks: 

"The whole situation was one too familiar in 
our tariff history: the details of legislation had 
been virtually arranged by persons having a 
direct pecuniaiy interest in the outcome, and hav- 
ing also the closest relations with the legislators 
controlKnff the outcome. Even though there was 



no corruption — and there is no ground for sus- 

[1T7] 



WOODROW WILSON 



pecting" anything- more than generous contribu- 
tions to party chests — the outcome was much 
the same as if there had been coriTiption. It 
illustrates once more how radically bad was the 
method b}^ which the details of our tariff legisla- 
tion were settled." 

The actual method makes the tariff the produc- 
tion of the conference committee. In theory the 
business of the conference committee is to adjust 
differences between the two Houses; in practice 
it may change and reshape the bill, altering 
even rates on which there has been no disagree- 
ment between the two Houses. The report of the 
committee must be accepted or rejected in its 
entirety, so the actual legislation is privately ar- 
ranged by a small group of leaders, and the force 
of party discipline invariably compels the House 
to ratify their action. The manipulation of the 
process by outside interests in 1909 was so noto- 
rious that President Taft was impelled to inter- 
vene, and he set an important precedent by him- 
self entering into conference with members of 
the conference committee. Although by his in- 
fluence he obtained some modifications, he pub- 

[178] 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 



licly criticized portions of the bill, although he 
had not felt justified in withholding his signa- 
ture. Popular resentment was so intense that in 
the congressional elections of 1910 a Democratic 
majority of 66 was substituted for a Repubhcan 
majority of 40. 

In grappling with the difficult task of tariff 
revision the Democratic party enjoyed no exemp- 
tion from the subterranean influences that are 
active, whatever party is in power. Responsible 
government is yet to be installed in the United 
States, and so long as existing conditions con- 
tinue, tariff legislation will be more or less of a 
scramble of particular localities and interests to 
get all they can for themselves, heedless of the 
general welfare. In a thoroughly developed sys- 
tem of constitutional government, the prepara- 
tion of all revenue and financial measures is the 
business of the organ of authority representing 
the nation in its entirety, under conditions which 
secure to the representatives of localities and par- 
ticular interests full opportunity to voice their 
demands mthout the opportunity of enforcing 
their demands by mere advantages of position. 

[179] 



WOODROW WILSON 



Switzerland, a country without any ports of its 
own, has very difficult and complicated tariff 
problems to solve, and does so with conspicuous 
success, by making it the business of the adminis- 
tration, which prepares the tariif in close consul- 
tation with business interests, publishes the pro- 
posed schedules for criticism, and eventually sub- 
mits a fully matured measure to the Congress. 
Moreover, it is the practice of the Swiss Congress 
to intrust to the administration the task of in- 
corporating in the bill any amendments voted by 
Congress. Such procedure effectually shuts out 
"jokers" and secures the predominance of public 
motive throughout the tariff-making process. 
The actual process existing in the United States 
was frankly revealed by Senator Vest of Mis- 
souri, in a speech on August 16, 1894: 

"Sir, after my experience in the last five 
months, I have not an enemy in the w^orld v/hom 
I would place in the position I have occupied as 
a member of the Finance Committee under the 
rules of the Senate. I would put no man where 
I have been, to be blaclanailed and driven, in or- 
der to pass a bill that I believe is necessary to the 

[180] 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 

welfare of the country, by senators who desired 
to force amendments upon me against my better 
judgment and compel me to decide the question 
whether I will take any bill at all or a bill which 
has been distorted by their views and objects." 

No committee figures in the business at all in 
any English commonwealth, except the commit- 
tee of the whole house. All the members have an 
equal opportunity to plead or to criticize, but no 
member can prevent action. Members may vote 
measures up or down, but they cannot avoid the 
responsibility of passing upon them without un- 
reasonable delay. Indeed, it is now the practice 
of all civilized countries to act with great expedi- 
tion in such matters in order to prevent industrial 
strain and to protect the public revenues. The 
incubation of the measure is deliberate and cau- 
tious, but once matured it is put to vote and de- 
termined almost forthwith. The Congress of the 
United States is now the only national legisla- 
ture in which means exist by which particular in- 
terests may obstruct action until their demands 
are satisfied. 

The existence of these conditions must be 

[181] 



WOODROW WILSON 



borne in mind in computing the magnitude of the 
administration's task. The President applied 
himself to it with the same alertness and fore- 
thought that he had displayed as governor of 
New Jersey. Matters were not allowed to drift 
but were given guidance and direction. The 
House Committee on Ways and Means began 
work on the measure before President Wilson 
took office and he entered at once into frank co- 
operation with them. By March 25 a complete 
draft of the proposed measure was in his hands, 
and he was prepared to support it with all the in- 
fluence of his office. He made the tariff the sole 
topic of the message which he personally deliv- 
ered to Congress when it met on April 7. In it 
he said : 

"For a long time — a time so long that the men 
now active in public policy hardly remember the 
conditions that preceded it — we have sought in 
our tariff schedules to give each group of manu- 
facturers or producers what they themselves 
thought that they needed in order to maintain 
a practically exclusive market as against the rest 
of the world. Consciously or unconsciously we 

[182] 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 

have built up a set of privileges and exemptions 
from competition behind which it was easy by 
any, even the crudest, forms of combination to 
organize monopoly; until at last nothing is nor- 
mal, nothing is obliged to stand the tests of effi- 
ciency and economy in our world of big business, 
but everything thrives by concerted agreement. 
Only new principles of action will save us from 
a final hard crystallization of monopoly and a 
complete loss of the influences that quicken en- 
terprise and keep independent energy alive." 

"It is plain what those principles must be. We 
must abolish everything that bears even the sem- 
blance of privilege or of any kind of artificial ad- 
vantage, and put our business men and producers 
under the stimulation of a constant necessity to 
be efficient, economical and enterprising masters 
of competitive supremacy, better workers and 
merchants than any in the world. Aside from the 
duties laid upon articles which we do not and 
probably cannot produce, therefore, and the du- 
ties laid upon luxuries and merely for the sake 
of the revenues they yield, the object of the tariff 
duties henceforth laid must be effective competi- 

[183] 



WOODROW WILSON 



tion, the whetting of American wits by contest 
with the wits of the rest of the world." 

While the proposed measure was framed on 
these principles, it moved cautiously in applying 
them. The transition was to be gradual. As to 
this, President Wilson said: 

"It would be unwise to move toward this end 
headlong, with reckless haste, or with strokes 
that cut at the very roots of what has gi^o^\Ti up 
among us by long process and at our own invita- 
tion. It does not alter a thing to upset it and 
break it and deprive it of a chance to change. It 
destroys it." 

The tariff bill was explained in detail by Chair- 
man Underwood of the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee and it passed the House on May 8. It 
was before the Senate all summer, and did not 
come to a vote until the close of September. 
Agreement between the two Houses was soon 
reached and the bill became law on October 3. 
Throughout the arduous process the influence 
of the administration was steadily exerted in fa- 
vor of party support of the measure. Party cau- 
cuses passed upon the important issues; diff*er- 

[184] 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 

ences were adjusted, dissensions avoided, and 
party cohesion was maintained with impressive 
results. Professor Taussig in his dispassionate 
review of the proceedings remarks: 

*'To this success the attitude of the administra- 
tion contributed most effectively. President 
Wilson had quietly but unhesitatingly assumed 
leadership and secured a hold on his associates 
and followers which astonished friend and en- 
emy." 

The energy and courage with which President 
Wilson acts upon his conceptions of public duty 
were signally exemplified when the usual tariff 
lobby had gathered in Washington and the bill 
had apparently stuck in the same old Senate ruts. 
The President was ready to meet the issue. He 
publicly stated that he had "taken his stand with 
the House leaders for the present bill" and that 
he was "not looking for or accepting compro- 
mises ;" he then startled his opponents by direct- 
ing public attention to the tariff lobby. Prob- 
ably no other presidential utterance ever had such 
a tremendous reverberation throughout the coun- 
try. He said ; 

[185] 



WOODROW WILSON 



"I think that the public ought to know the ex- 
traordinary exertions being made by the lobby in 
Washington to gain recognition for certain al- 
terations of the Tariff Bill. Washington has sel- 
dom seen so numerous, so industrious, or so in- 
sidious a lobby. The newspapers are being filled 
with paid advertisements calculated to mislead 
not only the judgment of the public men, but also 
the public opinion of the country itself. There 
is every evidence that money without limit is 
being spent to maintain this lobby, and to create 
the appearance of a pressure of public opinion 
antagonistic to some of the chief items of the 
Tariff Bill. 

"It is of serious interest to the country that the 
people at large should have no lobby, and be 
voiceless in these matters, while great bodies of 
astute men seek to create an artificial opinion and 
to overcome the interests of the public for their 
private profit. It is thoroughly worth tlie while 
of the people of this country to take knowledge 
of this matter. Only public opinion can check 
and destroy it. 

'The Government in all its branches ought to 

[186] 



HI 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 



be relieved of this intolerable burden and this con- 
stant interruption to the calm progress of debate. 
I know that in this I am speaking for the mem- 
bers of the two Houses, who would rejoice as 
much as I would to be released from this unbear- 
able situation." 

To this policy of frank appeal to public opin- 
ion, and to this reliance upon publicity as the 
means of obtaining proper action, the passage of 
the bill is to be ascribed. 

Discussion of the merits of a tariff bill is usu- 
ally a Tweedledum and Tweedledee perform- 
ance. Its advocates say it is a great reform ; its 
opponents say it will ruin the country. The truth 
of the matter is that only experts are able to 
judge of the suitability of the rates of duty pro- 
vided. One does not have to be an expert to ob- 
serve that this measure was more distinctly actu- 
ated by public motives than its predecessor. As 
to the actual value of the tariff act of 1913 the 
judgment of an expert like Professor Taussig, 
who studies the subject without regard to party 
consequences and solely for the purpose of get- 
ting at the truth, is w^orth far more than all cam- 

[187] 



WOODROW WILSON 



paign oratory. For a complete analysis of the 
bill the latest edition of his "Tariff History of 
the United States" should be consulted. Of its 
general character he remarks: 

"The Senate made many amendments to the 
House bill ; and at the last moment a quantity of 
details had to be settled in the hurried meetings 
of a Conference Committee. It is to be said, how- 
ever, that the conflicting amendments and 
eventual compromises gave little evidence, if in- 
deed any at all, of the sort of manipulation which 
had affected the details of the tariff acts of 1890, 
1897, and 1909." 

Professor Taussig expresses his surprise that 
in previous tariff legislation, the avowed motive 
of which was to strengthen the protective system, 
there should have been "so many loopholes for 
the dishonest importer." He notes that careful 
attention was given to this administrative prob- 
lem in the act of 1913. 

"The pertinent sections of the tariff accord- 
ingly were largely rewritten. That they were 
substantially improved was the judgment of spe- 
cialists competent on this intricate subject. . . . 

[188] 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 

Not of least interest to economists and others 
having occasion to study the course of foreign 
trade were provisions for the better collection 
and arrangement of the statistics of imports. 
There was ground for suspecting these of serious 
inaccuracies in the past. On the whole, the ad- 
ministrative provisions were well drawn. . . ." 

Thus to impartial opinion the tariff act of 1913 
reveals itself as an honestly conceived and a skill- 
fully devised measure. It certainly possesses this 
unique characteristic that it was exactly what it 
pretended to be; at last the people got just what 
they bargained for. Professor Taussig remarks : 

"To speak of the act as introducing complete 
free trade would be absurd ; but it might well be 
spoken of as beginning a policy of much mod- 
erated protection, and of opening the policy of 
still further changes in the same direction at a 
later date. . . . This method of dealing with our 
commercial system seems to be more in accord 
with the general trend of industrial development 
in the United States, than the rigid protectionism 
of 1890, 1897, and 1909. It looks to a growth 
not of those manufactures which are anxiously 

[189] 



WOODROW WILSON 



dependent on tariff protection, but of those able 
to hold their own, within the country and with- 
out, on terms of equality, or something approach- 
ing equality, with foreign competitors." 

If one compares this measured opinion of the 
character of the measure actually enacted with 
the outline of purpose given in President Wil- 
son's tariff address to the House, one may note 
an exactness of correspondence between promise 
and fulfillment that is rare in our political history. 
It is not improbable that when the politics of 
these times of ours come under the scientific scru- 
tiny of future historians there may be noted im- 
portant ethical results of the mode and character 
of tariff revision as planned and effected under 
the Wilson administration. It may have oc- 
curred to business interests that have heretofore 
deemed it necessary to make such expenditm'es 
and establish such connections as would enable 
them to exert private influence upon tariff legis- 
lation, that perhaps it might be better to come out 
into the open and trust their case to its merits. 
The tariff legislation of 1913 gave such a practi- 
cal assurance of honest and intelligent considera- 

[199] 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 

tion of all interests that hereafter the exchanging* 
of financial favor for legislative influence may be 
much less apt to occur. Such a system has noto- 
riously existed in the past. The president of a 
great corporation once bluntly told a committee 
of the Senate, "Every individual and corporation 
and firm, trust, or whatever you call it, does these 
things, and we do them." - Correspondence has 
gotten into public print displaying legislators in 
receipt of large sums from corporations with 
whom they were in consultation with regard to 
appointments to office and the details of pending 
measures. Surely the introduction of methods 
of legislation that give a prominent place to ad- 
ministrative initiative and to collective party re- 
sponsibility, with corresponding diminution of 
private and illicit opportunity, will be recognized 
as a gain to political morality. It should quite as 
surely be recognized as a gain to business secur- 
ity. On no point does history give clearer in- 
struction than that a government that falls under 
plutocratic control is doomed. When w^ealth 

* Senate Report, No. 606, Fifty-third Congress, second session, pp. 
351, 352. 

[191] 



WOODROW WILSON 



takes charge of legislation it lays itself open to 
spoliation. Relief from conditions that virtually 
forced wealthy interests into that dangerous 
function ought to be reckoned as a benefit of in- 
estimable value. 

The passage of the tariff act was promptly fol- 
lowed by legislation in regard to business and in- 
dustrial conditions. This was the subject of a 
special message delivered to a joint session of the 
two Houses on January 20, 1914. He remarked 
that in regard to monopolies and the various 
means by which they have been organized and 
maintained, public opinion "seems to be coming 
to a clear and almost universal agreement" in an- 
ticipation of Government action. The measures 
recommended were: 

*'Laws which will effectually prohibit and pre- 
vent such interlockings of the directorates of 
great corporations — banks and railroads, indus- 
trial, commercial and pubhc service bodies — as 
in effect result in making those who borrow and 
those who lend practically one and the same, those 
who sell and those who buy but the same persons 
trading with one another under different names 

[192] 



TARIFF LEGISLATION AND TRUST CONTROL 

and in different combinations, and those who af- 
fect to compete in fact partners and masters of 
some whole field of business 

"A law which will confer upon the Interstate 
Commerce Commission the power to superintend 
and regulate the financial operations by which the 
railroads are henceforth to be supplied w4th the 
money they need for their proper development, 
to meet the rapidly growing requirements of the 
country for increased and improved facilities of 
transportation. . . . 

"Further and more explicit legislative defini- 
tion of the policy and meaning of the existing 
anti-trust law. . . . We are sufficiently familiar 
with the actual processes and methods of monop- 
oly and of the many hurtful restraints of trade to 
make definition possible — at any rate up to the 
limits of what experience has disclosed. These 
practices, being now abundantly disclosed, can 
be explicitly and item by item forbidden by stat- 
ute in such terms as will practically eliminate 
uncertainty, the law itself and the penalty being 
made equally plain." 

In pursuance of these recommendations, bills 

[193] 



WOODROW WILSON 



were passed creating an Interstate Trade Com- 
mission which takes over functions previously ex- 
ercised by the Bureau of Corporations, but with 
increased powers; also, an anti-trust act supple- 
menting existing laws against unlawful restraints 
and monopoKes. These bills assert public author- 
ity to an extent that is a decided advance for the 
United States but still leaves this country much 
in the rear of civilized nations in legal provi- 
sion against exploitation of the people by busi- 
ness adventurers and high financiers. Indeed the 
substitution of management for exploitation is 
an improvement in American political and indus- 
trial conditions which has been barely begun, and 
no more can be claimed for President Wilson's 
administration than that he made a good begin- 
ning on a task that for difficulty might be classed 
among the labors of Hercules. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CURRENCY REFORM 

AFAR more formidable undertaking than 
tariff reform was currency reform. In the 
one case there had been a definition of purpose 
that received popular assent and approval. The 
main task was in conducting the measure safely 
through the ambushes laid for it in the complica- 
tions of legislative procedure and in guarding its 
honesty against the corrupting influences to 
which it would be exposed during the ordeal. In 
the other case there was the greatest variety and 
distraction of sentiment. Rarely have statesmen 
had to deal with such a snarl of virulent animosi- 
ties as that in which the whole subject of cur- 
rency reform was entangled, and meanwhile con- 
ditions had become such as to require radical 
treatment. The currency system then existing 
had not originated as a system of currency sup- 
ply, but as a revenue measure during the Civil 
War. In order to create a market for Govern- 

[195] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ment bonds and to enhance their vahie, it was 
provided that a bank obtaining a charter from 
the national Government could issue notes pro- 
portioned to the Government bonds owned by the 
bank and deposited to secure circulation. To 
create a market for such note issues, a prohibitory 
tax was laid upon all other banknote issues, wip- 
ing them out of existence. Thus the circulating 
medium had no relation to the needs of business ; 
indeed, the greater the need the less became bank- 
ing provision for it. When business was particu- 
larly active and a properly organized banking 
system would have been supporting the activity 
b}'- timely supplies of currency, that was just the 
time when the national banking system would be- 
come cramped and obstructive. What was 
termed "moving the crops" was offered as a suf- 
ficient explanation of a regularly recurrent sea- 
sonal stringency, peculiar to the United States, 
and the larger the crops the more acute the strin- 
gency was likely to be, it being the peculiarity of 
this remarkable system that a big increase of na- 
tional assets, instead of facilitating the functions 
of the banks, seemed to smite them with partial 

[196] 



CURRENCY REFORM 



paralysis. Another peculiarity was that the note 
issues were at any time liable to be withdrawn 
from circulation altogether. This was due to 
the fact that they were in effect Government 
bonds in liquid form and were good no matter 
what became of the particular banks in whose 
name they were issued. Thus, while ordinarily 
the effect of financial uneasiness is to push note 
issues into rapid circulation while coin becomes 
scarcCj in the United States the notes would sud- 
denly disappear. The effect upon trade was 
much as if the water had suddenly leaked out of 
a river channel, leaving the fish flopping about 
and gasping in the mud. 

The existence of such conditions was natur- 
ally and inevitably a copious source of public dis- 
content, producing from time to time movements 
which the governing set of politicians were in the 
habit of describing as popular crazes, but which 
were really instinctive protests against tlieir own 
obtuseness and incapacity. Although ability to 
institute the needed reforms seemed to be lacking, 
yet the existing system was so crazy that it could 
not go on at all without constant nursing and at- 

[197] 



WOODROW WILSON 



tendance. From time to time, mainly through 
administrative action, the bond basis of circula- 
tion was enlarged, thus admitting of additional 
currency supply with like disabilities and infirmi- 
ties to the preceding supply. Stress of necessity 
compelled some provision for emergency issues 
based upon assets. Meanwhile popular sentiment 
was suspicious and distrustful, and the desired 
legislation could be obtained only by bullying 
Congress. No other term will fit the case. On 
one occasion, a committee chairman told the 
House : "I have the report of the conference on 
the Public Buildings bill in my pocket. I am go- 
ing to keep it there until a satisfactory currency 
bill is passed." ^ 

Along with these provisional arrangements a 
currency commission was created which made a 
voluminous report. The immediate legislative 
outcome was what was designated the Aldrich 
Bill, the essential feature of which was that it 
adopted the principle of currency supply based 
upon assets and placed emissions under the con- 
trol of a central bank, to be managed and directed 

1 Congressional Record, May 30, 19C8 

[198] 



CURRENCY REFORM 



by the subsidiaiy banks. This scheme was re- 
garded as being contrived so much more to for- 
tify the position of the banks than to assure their 
proper service to the pubhc, that it was de- 
nounced both in the Democratic platform and 
the Progressive party platform, and was avoided 
in the Republican platform. 

Such was the situation when President Wilson 
had to address himself to the task of currency re- 
form. His method was the simple and straight- 
forward one of actively exerting the authority 
and influence of his office to effect concentration 
of party purpose and to secure definite action. 
He did not have any plan of his own nor did he 
pretend to expert knowledge of the subject, but 
his character and activity supplied means by 
which an influential connection was established 
between the legislative process and instructed 
opinion. His party had able and experienced 
leaders in the House whose efl*orts were now in- 
vigorated by administrative support, emphasized 
by the fact that the President was an active party 
to the conferences and negotiations by which the 
bill was shaped. As in the case of the tariff bill, 

[199] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the party leaders in the House had wisely made 
an early start, and a preliminaiy draft of cur- 
rency legislation had been prepared before Presi- 
dent Wilson was inaugurated. All the details 
were carefully considered in conference with the 
President, with the result that when the bill was 
ready for presentation it ranked as an administra- 
tion measure which the President would use all 
his influence to promote, and he signified this by 
making it the subject of a special message. 

The tariff bill had been out of the House for 
over a month and was now toiling its weary way 
through the Senate, when on June 23, 1913, the 
President of the United States, attended by 
members of his Cabinet and escorted by a joint 
committee of senators and representatives, en- 
tered the hall of the House, and standing at the 
clerk's desk, delivered his message. He began 
by saying that he was acting under the compul- 
sion of what seemed a clear and imperative duty. 

*'I know, of course, that the heated season of 
the year is upon us, that work in these Chambers 
and in the committee rooms is likely to become a 
burden as the season lengthens, and that every 

[200] 



CURRENCY REFORM 



consideration of personal convenience and per- 
sonal comfort, perhaps, in the cases of some of 
us, considerations of personal health even, dic- 
tate an early conclusion of the deliberations of 
the session ; but there are occasions of public duty 
when these things which touch us privately seem 
very small ; when the work to be done is so press- 
ing and so fraught with big consequence that we 
know that we are not at liberty to weigh against 
it any point of personal sacrifice. We are now 
in the presence of such an occasion. It is abso- 
lutely imperative that we should give the business 
men of this country a banking and currency sys- 
tem by means of which they can make use of the 
freedom of enterprise and of individual initiative 
which we are about to bestow upon them." 

The address, which was so brief that it occupied 
only half an hour in its delivery, coupled the cur- 
rency bill with the tariff bill. To strike the shack- 
les off business was not enough. It should have 
the means of caring for itself and enlarging its 
activities. Currency reform was the proper ad- 
junct of tariff reform. As to the character of 
the measure he said: 

[201] 



WOODROW WILSON 



"The country has sought and seen its path in 
this matter within the last few years — sees it more 
clearly now than it ever saw it before — ^much 
more clearly than when the last legislative pro- 
posals on the subject were made. We must have 
a currency not rigid as now% but readily, elasti- 
cally responsive to sound credit, the expanding 
and contracting credits of every-day transac- 
tions, the normal ebb and flow of personal and 
corporate dealings. Our banking laws must mo- 
bilize reserves; must not permit the concentra- 
tion anywhere in a few hands of the monetary re- 
sources of the country or their use for speculative 
purposes in such volume as to hinder or impede or 
stand in the way of other more legitimate, more 
fruitful uses. And the control of the system of 
banking and of issue which our new laws are to 
set up must be public, not private, must be vested 
in the Government itself, so that the banks may 
be the instruments, not the masters, of business 
and of individual enterprise and initiative." 

The address concluded with a frank avowal of 
his own part in the proposals, and at the same 
time made a clear statement of his ideas of the 

[202] 



CURRENCY REFORM 



constitutional function of his office. He said: 
*'The committees of the Congress to which leg- 
islation of this character is referred have devoted 
careful and dispassionate study to the means of 
accomplishing these objects. They have honored 
me by consulting me. They are ready to suggest 
action. I have come to you as the head of the 
Government and the responsible leader of the 
party in power, to urge action now, while there 
is time to serve the country deliberately and as 
we should, in a clear air of common counsel. I 
appeal to you with a deep conviction of duty. I 
believe that you share this conviction. I there- 
fore appeal to you with confidence. I am at your 
service without reserve to play my part in any 
way you may call upon me to play it in this great 
enterprise of exigent reform, which it will dig- 
nify and distinguish us to perform and discredit 
us to neglect." 

With this explicit recommendation there was 
presented to Congress the bill for currency re- 
form, the outcome of which was the Federal Re- 
serve Act. That epochal enactment had a hard 
road to travel; the vested interests it disturbed 

[203] 



WOODROW WILSON 



were numerous and powerful ; attempts to manip- 
ulate its provisions were energetic and sustained, 
but its main points were subjected to no serious 
change. This success was due to the care taken 
to secure party cohesion. When the case in its 
support had been thoroughly prepared it was 
submitted to the Democratic party caucus of the 
House. Two weeks of animated discussion fol- 
lowed behind closed doors, where, in the privacy 
of a party conclave, members gave free expres- 
sion to any doubts, scruples or objections enter- 
tained. The magnitude of the innovation pro- 
posed supplied matter for wide-ranging criticism, 
but as a result of patient explanation and full 
consideration a hearty party agreement was 
reached and the bill was assured of steady and 
united party support. The legislative machinery 
controlled by the Committee on Rules, acting un- 
der caucus instruction, was now set into brisk 
operation. On September 9 an elaborate report 
upon the provisions of the measure was submitted 
to the House by its Banking and Currency Com- 
mittee. Debate upon it began on September 10 
and it passed the House on September 18, receiv- 

[204] 



CURRENCY REFORM 



ing 286 votes to 84 against. Although before 
proposing the measure the House committee had 
devoted a long time to public hearings upon it, 
additional hearings were allowed by the Senate 
Banking Committee, lasting until October 25. A 
month of committee consideration followed ; then 
came three days of Senate caucus consideration, 
and at last, on December 1, the bill was reported 
to the Senate. This delay in the progress of the 
measure w^as largely due to the opposition of 
banking interests clinging tenaciously to the old 
project of one central bank under banking con- 
trol. Vehement opposition to various features of 
the pending act were expressed by associations 
of bankers, and in some respects the tone of criti- 
cism emanating from banking interests sug- 
gested that an incidental effect of the vicious sys- 
tem the administration was striving to reform 
was moral and intellectual deficiency among 
those whose habits and opinions had been formed 
under that system. The opposition was suffi- 
ciently influential to produce a part}^ break in the 
Senate, one result of which was to divide the 
banking committee into two numerically equal 

[205] 



WOODROW WILSON 



sections, one of which reported the administration 
bill with amendments, and the other reported a 
substitute measure. When the struggle was at 
its height the attitude of banking interests be- 
came rather menacing, conditions being men- 
tioned without which they would refuse to do 
business under the law. Tremendous pressure 
was brought to bear upon the President, but he 
would not budge a particle from the position he 
had taken in support of the House measure. The 
situation having been thoroughly explored, and 
it having become manifest that either the essential 
features of the House bill would have to be ac- 
cepted or else currency reform would fail of en- 
actment at that session, the banking opposition 
subsided to a marked extent. Just when the ten- 
sion was most acute the president of the largest 
bank in the country performed a timely public 
service by avowing to the Senate committee that 
the House measure was based upon sound prin- 
ciples and that much of the opposition was due to 
the selfishness of some and the ignorance of oth- 
ers. After that event evidences of a disposition 
to accept the situation and make the best of it 

[206] 



CURRENCY REFORM 



began to appear, and when it again got under 
way the bill moved on briskly to final enactment. 
Senate debate began on December 1, the final 
vote was taken December 19, the Committee on 
Conference reached an agreement on December 
22, and the President signed the bill the following 
day — a magnificent Christmas gift from the 
Democratic party to the nation. 

Immediately after its passage the Federal Re- 
serve Act was characterized by the Bankers' 
Magazine as being "probably the most compre- 
hensive piece of banking legislation ever enacted 
in this country." The structural principles are, 
however, simple. The thousands of national 
banks scattered throughout the country like so 
many separate wells were brought together into 
one system in which they stand as local conduits 
from a national reservoir. The country was di- 
vided into twelve districts, in each of which is a 
federal reserve bank, with which the member 
banks of the district keep their reserves and from 
which they can obtain supplies of currency on 
occasion by rediscount of their holdings of securi- 
ties and commercial paper. Each reserve bank 

[207] 



WOODROW WILSON 



has its own board of directors, nine in number, 
six of whom are to be chosen by the member banks 
upon a preferential ballot scheme, and three are 
appointed by the Federal Reserve Board, which 
exercises general supervision over the system. 
This Board is composed of the secretary of the 
treasury, the comptroller of the currency, and five 
other members appointed by the President, and 
it wields such extensive powers of supervision, di- 
rection and control that it is the administrative 
center of the system. There is also a body desig- 
nated the Federal Advisory Council, chosen by 
the banks and consisting of as many members 
as there are federal reserve districts. The pow- 
ers of this body are purely consultative, but its 
existence provides the banks with an organ of 
their own for representations to the Federal Re- 
serve Board or for concert of action among them- 
selves on matters of common interest. The fed- 
eral reserve banks have general banking powers, 
and with the consent of the Federal Reserve 
Board may establish agencies in foreign coun- 
tries. Indeed the act supplies a powerful engine 
for estabhshing the United States as a center of 

[208] 



CURRENCY REFORM 



international banking, and already it has had the 
effect of promoting great enterprises in the for- 
eign commerce of the nation. 

The composition of the Federal Keserve Board 
was generally recognized as strong and well bal- 
anced. In making the appointments President 
Wilson braved prejudice by selecting one Wall 
Street financier, adhering to his choice in the face 
of opposition so strong that it was with manifest 
reluctance that the Senate finally confirmed the 
appointment. The act was warmly approved by 
financial experts outside of the banking world, 
as their knowledge of financial history made them 
well aware that the public control to which our 
bankers objected so strenuously was an ordinary 
feature of the situation in civilized countries. It 
is rather a significant circumstance that banking 
organs which started out by treating the Act as 
a thing of very doubtful value gradually swung 
around to the position of favoring an extension 
of its scope. In its issue for January, 1915, the 
Bankers' Magazine declared: 

"Under the operations of the Federal Reserve 
System it seems quite reasonable to hope that pan- 

[209] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ics due to national bank suspensions are a thing 
of the past, for the flexibihty of the note issues 
now provided for, and the rediscounting privilege 
accessible to all members, practically assure any 
solvent bank against demands that will compel 
suspension." 

It then argued that state banks should be 
brought under the system, thus extending the 
jurisdiction of the Federal Keserve Board over 
all the credit institutions of the United States. 

Whatever bitterness or resentment was left 
after the Act was swept away by the outbreak of 
the European War. The thought that the coun- 
try might have had to face the financial disturb- 
ance caused by that event with no more facilities 
than the crazy old system supplied was simply 
appalling. Every business man felt a sense of 
relief in the knowledge that all the national re- 
sources could be promptly mobilized to meet the 
shock and that an adequate supply of circulating 
medium was assured. It now begins to appear 
that what was the most bitterly contested meas- 
ure of President Wilson's administration may 
rank as its most memorable achievement. 

[210] 



CHAPTER IX 

THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 

AT the time President Wilson took office, with 
heavy arrears of domestic legislation to dis- 
pose of, he was forthwith confronted with exter- 
nal problems of extreme urgency. The collapse 
of constitutional government in Mexico was an 
untoward event whose dangerous possibilities 
were fully recognized by public opinion, however 
views might differ as to our national policy in 
the circumstances. The menace of the situation 
in the Philippines was really greater, but there 
was no popular apprehension of it, and the meas- 
ures taken by the administration have never been 
viewed in their proper perspective. Philippine 
affairs have become rather a bore to the Ameri- 
can people, from the way they have figured in a 
rather factitious dispute over imperialism. The 
prevailing sentiment seems to be that, whatever 
name be given to the relation, circumstances have 
made this country responsible for the orderly 

[211] 



WOODROW WILSON 



government of those islands, and, however dis- 
agreeable the task may be, that responsibility 
must be sustained. It is well within popular rec- 
ollection that we entered the country as allies of 
the Filipinos, that subsequently there was a rup- 
ture and that to subdue the country military force 
was employed at an expense of about $200,000,- 
000. But it appears that since then our govern- 
ment of that country has been actuated by philan- 
thropic principles and a sincere and persevering 
attempt has been made to introduce the Ameri- 
can language and also American political insti- 
tutions in as rapid installments as may be safe 
or practicable. Meanwhile we have our own af- 
fairs to attend to and are not disposed to be di- 
verted from consideration of them by Filipino 
complaints or by the agitations of American sym- 
pathizers. Such appears to be the general atti- 
tude of public opinion in this country, and in 
accord with it the press is apt to throw cold water 
upon any movement for the redress of Filijjino 
grievances. Postponement is always in order 
when that subject is up for legislative considera- 
tion. 

[212] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 

- 

In order to comprehend the situation and get 
some notion of the national perils with which it is 
fraught, it should be viewed as the Filipinos view 
it, and w^e should consider how we ourselves 
should feel and act were we in their place. The 
Filipinos regard American rule about as we 
should have felt about French rule if, during our 
Revolutionary War, the French Government had 
seized the opportunity of taking possession of 
America for itself, taking the position that the 
best interests of the people required that the 
French language and French political institu- 
tions should supersede the native variety in order 
to estabhsh more advanced standards of culture. 
As a matter of fact the Filipinos, like other 
Oriental peoples, have a very ancient culture of 
their own, with a marked literary and artistic pol- 
ish. IMoreover, they have been long in contact 
with European culture. As a region of civiliza- 
tion the country is older than the United States. 
Permanent Spanish settlement began over forty 
years before the first English settlement 
at Jamestown. The Filipino gentry speak Span- 
ish and the masses speak native dialects which are 

[213] 



WOODROW WILSON 



not low languages, but are refined and capable 
instruments of thought, producing poetry, drama 
and romantic literature, although deficient in sci- 
ence. The national manners are courteous and 
refined, and the exhibition of members of savage 
tribes as Filipino types gives about as fair an 
idea of the Filipino people as would be given if 
blanketed Indians were exhibited as specimens of 
the American people. The civilized Filipinos 
number over 7,000,000, and the wild tribes — be- 
tween whom and the civilized people there is little 
contact — number about 650,000. 

It will probably be admitted that to change the 
mother tongue of seven million people is a for- 
midable undertaking. It was sought to be ac- 
complished by the importation of a thousand 
American school-teachers, although the actual 
number in the service at one time never reached 
that figure. The school-teachers did accomj)lisli 
wonders, as the present writer can testify from 
personal observations made in every part of the 
archipelago. Indeed in every branch of service 
the staff of American officials has a record of 
achievement that affords impressive evidence of 

[214] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 

the energy and adaptability of American charac- 
ter. But at the same time the project of convert- 
ing the Filipinos into American citizens who may 
some day be safely intrusted with political in- 
stitutions of the ordinary American type has been 
a complete failure, and perseverance in the at- 
tempt can only lead to increasing irritation and 
eventual disaster. 

As an incident of the educational scheme, lit- 
eracy qualifications for the suffrage were con- 
fined to those who could read and write either 
Spanish or English. This provision, w^iile de- 
signed to stimulate acquisition of English speech, 
had incidentally the effect of propagating grave 
misrepresentations of the situation. Attention 
has often been called to the fact that the qualified 
electorate is an extraordinarily small percentage 
of the adult male population, thus indicating that 
illiteracy generally prevails. But this is not 
really the case, and it appears to be so merely 
because natives who cannot read and wTite a for- 
eign language are officially classed as illiterate. 
Probably it is the only instance in history in 
which people who can read and write their own 

[215] 



WOODROW WILSON 



language are classed as illiterate. As a matter 
of fact the Filipinos have a talent for literacy, 
and even among the peasantry, who have only na- 
tive culture, ability to read and write is a com- 
mon accomplishment. 

The American schools have widely diffused a 
knowledge of English among the rising genera- 
tion and it is eagerly sought through appreciation 
of its advantages in fitting one for a government 
position or for a professional career. Statistics 
based upon school reports have been published in- 
dicating encouraging progress in the spread of 
English as the common language of the Philip- 
pines, but such statistics are fallacious. As well 
might the number of pupils receiving instruction 
in Latin in our schools be taken as an indication 
of the extent to which Latin is spoken in the 
United States. As a matter of fact Spanish is 
more than ever the language of polite society, of 
judicial proceedings and of legislation. More 
people are speaking Spanish than when Ameri- 
can occupation began, and indirectly the Ameri- 
can schools have promoted that result, inasmuch 
as educational advance of any kind incites desire 

[216] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 

to attain the language spoken in good society and 
thus estabhsh one's position in the illustrado class. 
This disposition reacts upon the quality of Eng- 
lish when it is used. Outside of circles in such 
close contact with American officials as to feel 
the influence of their example, the Spanish vowel 
sounds are used, with the result that one could 
hardly recognize as English what purports to be 
such. Meanwhile the hold of native dialect is ap- 
parently not shaken at all, but on the contrary its 
use is being strengthened by the activity of pa- 
triotic sentiment. Native dialect is the medium 
through which the abundant literature of Fili- 
pino politics reaches the masses, and at present 
it looks as if the vernacular will be the perma- 
nent channel of popular thought and feeling. A 
fact that is conclusive as to the actual state of the 
case is that although there are over forty native 
newspapers and magazines in the Philippines not 
one of them is published in English. The regular 
form is a Spanish section and a dialect section. 
The most widely circulated American newspaper 
has a Spanish section. Step by step the Gov- 
ernment has been forced to take action making 

[217] 



WOODROW WILSON 



practical admission of defeat on the language 
question. It was enacted that English should be 
the sole official language after January 1, 1906, 
but sheer pressure of administrative necessity 
compelled postponement, first to January 1, 
1911, and then to January 1, 1913. For some- 
thing over a month in 1913, English was nomi- 
nally the only language accepted in judicial pro- 
ceedings or in Government business, but as a 
matter of fact the requirement was absolutely im- 
practicable. The administration got out of a 
painful dilemma by the Act of February 11, 
1913, which declared English to be tlie official 
language of the Philippines, but that Spanish 
should be an official language until January 1, 
1920. The terms of the Act are simply a stra- 
tegic veil cast over a decisive defeat on the lan- 
guage question. The postponement to 1920 is in 
effect an abandonment of the struggle to force 
English into use. 

If we can imagine how we should feel if we 
were systematically depicted as ignorant and il- 
literate because we were in the habit of using our 
own language and not a foreign language, some 

[218] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 

notion may be had of the offense given to Fih- 
pino national sentiment. Insults hurt more than 
injuries. The state of chronic exasperation thus 
incited was aggravated by the character of the 
political institutions imposed upon the country 
by the Act of Congress of July 1, 1902. One 
might have thought that it would be a principle 
of policy to allow the Filipinos to have institu- 
tions molded to their own desire as long as these 
were conformable to the peace and order of so- 
ciety. The constitution of their short-lived re- 
public had admirable features which might well 
have been adopted, but instead of that, institu- 
tions were introduced which we ourselves could 
never endure. During the eighteenth century it 
was a common arrangement to check a popular 
assembly by a separate appointive council com- 
bining executive and legislative functions. The 
American colonies had sad experience of such 
institutions. They have alwa^^s worked badly, 
causing the assembly to be the perpetual theater 
of faction violence while the council is the scene 
of discord and intrigue. Hence such institutions 
have long since gone into the discards of political 

[219] 



WOODROW WILSON 



science. The last instance of the deliberate adop- 
tion of such a sj^stem in our home politics was 
probably the Act of February 21, 1871, estab- 
lishing a territorial form of government in the 
District of Columbia. In its practical operation 
it turned out to be such an intolerable nuisance 
that in 1874 it was abolished. In it there was 
an appointive council of eleven members serving 
as the upper house of the legislature, just as 
became the case with the Philippine Commission. 
The structural resemblance is such that a curious 
researcher guided by law books alone might be 
led to infer that the old District of Columbia 
scheme served as a model for Philippine consti- 
tution making, and that it was expected of the 
people of that country to work institutions that 
we were not ourselves able to work successfully. 
But the truth is that the resemblance is wholly 
fortuitous and without any causal significance 
whatever. The governmental arrangements of 
the Philippines took their shape from the fact 
that they were originally governed by authority 
of the President, which he exercised through an 
appointed commission. When in 1902 Congress 

[220] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 



took over the government of the country, the 
existing system was retained with the incongru- 
ous provision that the Fihpinos should be allowed 
to elect a representative assembly. The Filipino 
nation was thus placed in the plight of Tantalus, 
with plenty close at hand, but always out of 
reach. Ileal authority was concentrated in the 
commission, which was kept separate from the 
assembly so that its acts were not exposed to 
effective criticism. Certain members of the com- 
mission held the administrative portfolios and 
constituted the executive branch of the govern- 
ment. These same executive heads in conjunc- 
tion with their associates on the commission con- 
stituted the upper house of the legislature, and 
it was its habit to meet behind closed doors. In 
our colonial period the conflict and disturbance 
that naturally ensued from such partition of au- 
thority were apt to turn in favor of the represen- 
tative assembly through its control over appro- 
priations, but this recourse was denied to the 
Filipino nation, as the governor-general had au- 
thority himself to make the appropriations in 
ease the assembly failed to vote them. 

[221] 



WOODROW WILSON 



This mockery of representative government 
exists in Porto Rico as well as the Philippines, 
and the bitter discontents which are everywhere 
and ahvays the result of political arrangements 
of such character abound in both countries. But 
in the Philippines these discontents are associated 
with an active and general national sentiment 
aiming at independence, and at the time Presi- 
dent Wilson took office the situation w^as critical. 
Por three years there had been a deadlock be- 
tween the assembly and the commission over the 
appropriations, and the governor-general had 
himself made the appropriations, apportioning 
them from time to time as he saw fit. One need 
only remember American history to get some 
notion of the burning indignation of the Filipino 
people and the dangerous possibilities of the sit- 
uation. In dealing with it President Wilson was 
not in a position to introduce a change of sys- 
tem. No radical alteration in the character of 
the government is possible until the Act of July 
1, 1902, is repealed. President Wilson had to 
move within the narrow limits of this act and he 
effected a profound change in the situation by 

[222] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 



the exertion of personal influence. Extracts from 
his messages and pubhc utterances indicating a 
sympathetic appreciation of FiHpino grievances 
were eagerly seized upon by the native press and 
the publicity given to them had a tranquilizing 
effect. The introduction of the Jones bill was 
also a gratifying circumstance, and although the 
long delay that attended action on that measure 
has been trying, confidence in President Wilson 
has kept the people calm. The following mes- 
sage, in a letter of jSIarch 12, 1915, to the Hon. 
Manuel L. Quezon, was given general circulation 
by the native press: 

*'I will be very much obliged if you v\dll take 
some occasion when you are at home to express 
the admiration I have felt for the self-respecting 
behavior of the people of the Philippines in the 
midst of agitations which intimately affect their 
whole political future. Nothing is needed to es- 
tablish their full reputation with the people of 
the United States as a people capable of self- 
possession and self-government but a continua- 
tion in the moderate and constitutional course 
which they have pursued." 

[223] 



WOODROW WILSON 



Early in the course of President Wilson's ad- 
ministration the personnel of the Philippine Com- 
mission was changed and since then relations be- 
tween the commission and the assembly have im- 
proved so much that the old deadlocks no longer 
occur and the appropriations are passed in a con- 
stitutional way. The internal discord character- 
istic of that type of government has not been 
wholly eliminated, but it has been much less mis- 
chievous. A splendid achievement of the new ^ 
Philippine Commission has been the solution of 
the Moro problem. Under the previous admin- 
istration the Moro country was turned over to 
the military authorities. Strong garrisons were 
maintained in the country to overawe the tribes- 
men, but occasionally Moro forays took place on 
such a large scale that large bodies of troops had 
to be put into the field. The Moros fight with 
desperate resolution, and their women are on the 
battle line with the men, almost indistinguishable 
in appearance. Hence with every battle there 
would be a shocking butcher's bill, and there have 
been times when public opinion in the United 
States was deeply stirred by rex)orts and pictures 

[224] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 



of the heaps of slain, creating a state of sentiment 
whose political reactions hampered the army man- 
agement. During the presidential campaign of 
1912 our troops were held quietly in garrison at 
Jolo, while about ten miles away a force of several 
thousand ^loros were encamped, pillaging the 
country and terrorizing the peasantry; and not 
until after the election was over was any serious 
attempt made to stop them by force. 

The new administration determined upon a 
radical change of policy. Constabulary super- 
vision was substituted for the army management 
and an American civilian official was made gov- 
ernor of the jNIoro province. This was an ad- 
ministrative application of the principle that pre- 
vention is better than cure. Constabulary super- 
vision means that native policemen are constantly 
mixing among the people, incidentally getting 
news of what is going on. If a Moto potentate 
is thinking of going on a raid he begins to sack 
rice, collect supplies, and gather munitions, and 
now he cannot more than begin his preparations 
before the constabulary are on the scene wanting 
to know what he is about. The Moro situation 

[225] 



WOODROW WILSON 



is essentially an anachronism. It is an accidental 
preservation to our own times of a state of senti- 
ment whose past existence in Europe was illus- 
trated by Viking raids, Norman forays, Alger- 
ine piracy, etc. Gallant spirits among the JMoros 
retain those ancient standards of honorable ad- 
venture and have hankerings to give them prac- 
tical apphcation. Before the age of steam the 
Moros, with their swift sailing vessels, were the 
scourge of the islands, but they do not constitute 
a real peril now, except through local outbreaks, 
which can be readily suppressed if dealt with in 
their incipiency. That the new methods adopted 
by the commission would have important results 
was promptly recognized in the Philippines. The 
]Manila Fhilippines Free Press of July 25, 1914, 
editorially remarked : 

"One of the disillusionments Americans would 
better begin to prepare for these days is the ex- 
ploding of the time-honored Moro myth. Other- 
wise the shock is apt to jar them. Not that the 
Moro problem is settled by any means; but that 
there is reason to believe a beginning has been 
made. Doubtless the ancient superstition that 

[226] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 



the JMoro would eat up the Christian Filipino 
alive will die hard; and we see that Taft and 
Worcester are still exploiting it in the United 
States; but its days are numbered." 

The new policy has indeed exploded the Moro 
myth. The country has been kept in order, in- 
dustrial tendencies are getting the upper hand 
discouraging the old predatory tastes, and there 
are no more of those shocking catastrophes of 
mutual slaughter by our troops and the tribes- 
men. Although the ordinary attitude of the local 
American press to the administration is censori- 
ous, the practical success attained in dealing with 
complicated problems is now generally conceded, 
and the admission is the more significant since it 
is made rather grudgingly. In its issue of No- 
vember 13, 1915, the Philipjnnes Free Press, 
which is the American paper of largest circula- 
tion, said: 

"For ourselves, we confess to a certain meas- 
ure of sympath}^ with our Bourbons of the old 
imperialism, and, like them, sigh for a return of 
the good old times of material prosperity. Should 
they come with the present administration, it 

[227] 



WOODROW WILSON 



were a consummation devoutly to be wished ; but, 
should they demand another administration, then 
we trust that administration will be mellowed by 
a continuation of the present era of good feeling. 
For, as Americans first, we should rejoice in 
that feature of the present regime. Whatever 
may be thought of the Philippine policy of this 
administration, fairness demands that recognition 
be given to a harmony between the two peoples, 
American and Filipino, such as before was sadly 
lacking. Nor, in the light of the present unrest 
in certain dominions of the British empire and the 
menace it constitutes, should there be much need 
of stress being laid on the principle of "the con- 
sent of the governed," or on harmony as a first 
essential in our political relations here. 

"We also confess to a certain sympathy, or 
rather commiseration, with our Bourbons of the 
old regime who cannot see other excellencies in 
the present administration. The lofty and en- 
lightened statesmanship now being shown in the 
winning of the Moro and the amalgamation of 
the peoples in Mindanao is as superior to the 
policy of the former dynasty as the twentieth cen- 

[228] 



THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 

tury to the Middle Ages, and no American who 
professes a desire to see our work here estabhshed 
on sure foundations and crowned with lasting 
success but should experience a sense of profound 
gratification in the magnificent achievement be- 
ing wrought there, and ardently hope for its de- 
served consummation. 

"Now that w^e have emerged also from the 
fretful fever and apprehension of those first try- 
ing days when it seemed that the very edifice of 
government was tumbling about our ears, fair- 
ness again demands acknowledgment that the 
cataclysm expected and predicted has not super- 
vened. In the reconstruction of the government 
personnel a high standard, with some natural ex- 
ceptions, has been maintained, and even where 
Filipino has been substituted for American there 
generally has been no marked retrogression. In 
some cases it may even be said that the acquisition 
has been as a tower of strength to the govern- 
ment, and the appointment been more than justi- 
fied." 



CHAPTER X 

THE MEXICAN QUESTION 

ALTHOUGH the area of the Philippines is 
considerably less than one-sixth that of 
Mexico, the population is more than half that of 
Mexico, amounting in the one case to 74 per 
square mile as against less than 18 in the other. 
Mexico is right alongside of our own country, 
while the Philij^pines are some 10,000 miles away. 
As a military problem the task of coping with 
hostile conditions in Mexico would be small com- j 
pared to what it would be in the Philippines, 
but the greater menace has hardly been noticed 
and the measures taken to avert it have attracted 
little or no attention, whereas there has been keen 
solicitude as to the possible entanglements of thisi 
country in Mexican affairs. At the time Presi- 
dent Wilson took office the choice seemed to lie 
between recognition of General Huerta or inter- 
vention, and on each side clamorous appeal was 
made. Business interests generally favored 

[230] 



THE MEXICAN QUESTION 



recognition, for although Huerta's accession to 
power had been attended by the assassination of 
his predecessor, yet it was a fact that he was in 
power and apparently his authority was the only 
available basis of public order. On this ground 
European recognition was extended and Presi- 
dent Wilson incurred severe criticism at home and 
abroad for holding aloof. The explanation is that 
President Wilson had in view permanent inter- 
ests rather than present convenience. Back of 
the revolutionary game lies financial exploitation, 
and if that is allowed to go on there is no limit to 
the process, short of the complete exhaustion of 
the country. President Wilson therefore stead- 
fastly refused to give any countenance to Huer- 
ta's authority, although not directly antagonizing 
it, and emphatically disavowing any desire to in- 
terfere with Mexico's affairs. Just a week after 
assuming office President Wilson issued a state- 
ment in which he said: 

"One of the chief objects of my Administra- 
tion will be to cultivate the friendship and deserve 
the confidence of our sister republics of Central 
and South America and to promote in every 

[231] 



WOODROW WILSON 



honorable and proper way the interests which are 
common to the peoples of the two continents. . . . 

"Cooperation is possible only when supported 
at every turn by the orderly processes of just gov- 
ernment based upon law, not upon arbitrary or 
irregular force. We hold, as I am sure all 
thoughtful leaders of republican government 
everywhere hold, that just government rests al- 
w^ays upon the consent of the governed and that 
there can be no freedom without order based upon 
law and upon the public conscience and ap- 
proval. . . . 

"We shall lend our influence of every kind to 
the realization of these principles in fact and 
practice, knowing that disorder, personal intrigue 
and defiance of constitutional rights weaken and 
discredit government and injure none so much 
as the people who are unfortunate enough to have 
their common life and their common affairs so 
tainted and disturbed. We can have no sym- 
pathy with those who seek to seize the power of 
government to advance their own personal inter- 
ests or ambition. . . . 

'The United States has nothing to seek in 

[232] 



at 



THE MEXICAN QUESTION 



Central and South America except the lasting in- 
terests of the peoples of the two continents, the 
security of governments intended for the people 
and for no special group or interest, and the 
development of personal and trade relationships 
between the two continents which shall redound 
to the profit and advantage of both, and interfere 
with the rights and hberties of neither. From 
these principles may be read so much of the 
future policy of this Government as it is necessary 
now to forecast." 

The policy thus defined has been vigorously 
and successfully maintained with impressive re- 
sults, not onty as directly concerning the ^Mexican 
situation, but also as regards the relations be- 
tween the United States and other American na- 
tions, and as to the present significance of the 
Monroe Doctrine. 

At the outset President Wilson seems to have 
had some difficulty in impressing his policy upon 
agents of this country in Mexico, the opinion in 
diplomatic circles being so strong that the sensible 
thing to do was to recognize Huerta as a prac- 
tical short cut out of a nasty situation. There 

[233] 



WOODROW WILSON 



were resignations and protests. But steadily and 
patiently President Wilson reformed adminis- 
trative agency so as to obtain action in sympathy 
with administrative purpose. His efforts to im- 
prove the situation were for some time appar- 
ently fruitless and of this he frankly informed 
the country in a personally delivered message to 
Congress on August 27, 1913. In it he described 
the ]\Iexican drift toward anarchy. "War and 
disorder, devastation and confusion, seem to 
threaten to become the settled fortune of the dis- 
tracted country." The good offices of this Gov- 
ernment had been offered by the President 
through a personal representative sent to Mexico 
to give notice that the United States could not 
remain inactive in the presence of such condi- 
tions as were developing in I\Iexico, and to recom- 
mend a settlement on the basis of an immediate 
armistice, and an early and free election at which 
General Huerta would not be a candidate. These 
conditions were rejected by the authorities at 
Mexico City, because, said the President, "they 
did not realize the spirit of the American people 
in this matter, their earnest friendliness and yet 

[234] 



THE MEXICAN QUESTION 



sober determination that some just solution be 
found for the JMexican difficulties; and they did 
not believe that the present Administration 
spoke . . . for the people of the United States. 
The effect of this unfortunate misunderstanding" 
on their part is to leave them singularly isolated 
and without friends who can effectually aid them. 
So long as the misunderstanding continues we 
can only await the time of their awakening to a 
realization of the actual facts. We cannot thrust 
our good offices upon them. The situation must 
be given a little more time to work itself out in 
the new circumstances; and I believe that only 
a little while will be necessary. For the circum- 
stances are new. The rejection of our friendship 
makes them new and will inevitably bring its 
o\\Ti alterations in the whole aspect of affairs. 

* 'Meanwhile, what is it our duty to do? Clearly, 
everything that we do must be rooted in patience 
and done with calm and disinterested deliberation. 
Impatience on our part would be childish, and 
would be fraught with every risk of wrong and 
folly. We can afford to exercise the self-restraint 
of a really great nation which realizes its own 

[235] 



WOODROW WILSON 



strength and scorns to misuse it. It was our duty 
to offer our active assistance. It is now our duty 
to show what true neutrahty will do to enable * 
the people of Mexico to set their affairs in order 
again and wait for a further opportunity to offer 
our friendly counsels. The door is not closed ^ 
against the resumption, either upon the initiative 
of Mexico or upon our own, of the effort to 
bring order out of the confusion by friendly 
cooperative action, should fortunate occasion 
offer." 

While pursuing this policy of watchful wait- 
ing with regard to the internal affairs of Mexico 
the Administration was energetic in defending 
our own national interests. Complications ensu- 
ing from the action of Mexican authorities in tak- 
ing a number of our sailors from a navy launch 
at Tampico led to a strong concentration of our 
naval forces off the east coast of Mexico and in 
April, 1914, Vera Cruz was occupied by Ameri- 
can troops. At this critical juncture Argentina, 
Brazil, and Chile intervened with an offer of 
mediation which was promptly and cordially ac- 
cepted by President Wilson, who said: 

[286] 



THE MEXICAN QUESTION 



"This Government will be glad to take up with 
you for discussion in the frankest and most con- 
ciliatory spirit any proposals that may be authori- 
tatively formulated, and will hope that the}^ may 
prove feasible and prophetic of a new day of 
mutual cooperation and confidence in America." 

The President's opponents denounced his ac- 
ceptance of South American mediation as a sad 
blow to our prestige as a nation, but those who 
do not render judgment from the standpoint of 
immediate prejudice saw that it was a master- 
stroke of policy. The Springfield Rejmhlican 
declared : 

"The incident is worth hundreds of tours of 
South American capitals by our Secretaries of 
State, with innumerable banquet speeches on 
Pan-American solidarity. It is worth dozens of 
Pan-American conferences. For an act like this 
crystallizes fine words and eloquent periods into 
a landmark of Pan-American diplomacy. It es- 
tablishes a precedent; possibly it opens an era." 

This acceptance of mediation was followed by 
a conference at Niagara Falls, with the A. B. C. 
powers, which conference, although without defi- 

[237] 



WOODROW WILSON 



nite result, brought about understandings that 
contributed to the final result. Huerta's posi- 
tion became untenable and he left the country in 
July, 1914. His retirement temporarily left the 
field clear for General Carranza, but fresh revo- 
lutionar}^ movements took place, arraying 
against him his former adherent General Villa. 
In November, 1914, our forces evacuated Vera 
Cruz, which passed into the control of Carranza. 
Since then Carranza's authority has been gradu- 
ally extended throughout the country, although 
at this writing still disturbed by local outbreaks. 
It is now manifest that President Wilson handled 
an extremely difficult situation with signal ability. 
In its issue of December 21, 1915, the New York 
Times, which is certainly not biased in President 
Wilson's favor, said: 

"The Mexican question will not be a political 
issue in the United States next year unless some- 
thing happens to check the already rapid progress 
in the southern republic toward the restoration 
of peace and prosperity. . . . 

"So far as the attacks on President Wilson's 
Mexican policy are relied upon by politicians 

[238] 



THE MEXICAN QUESTION 



opposed to the Administration to influence polit- 
ical sentiment against it they will utterly fail. 
It is not to say that the policy has been wholly 
consistent and clearly thought out from the be- 
srinninff to admit that it has been successful. 
Throughout this country there is a feeling of 
thankfulness that war with Mexico has been 
avoided and a better understanding established 
between the two countries. There is also a gen- 
eral recognition of the value of the stronger 
relations which have been established with the 
South American republics and Guatemala in the 
settlement of the Mexican question. It was the 
idea of our Latin- American associates in the plan 
of mediation that Carranza should be recognized, 
and it must now be admitted that President Wil- 
son made no mistake in accepting the idea. The 
outlook in Mexico is now as bright as it possibly 
could be, considering the terrible disasters the 
country has suffered. . . ." 

The Mexican question has been made unduly 
prominent through the pohtical maneuvering in- 
cident to our party contests. Sustained efforts 
have been made to confuse and mislead public 

[239] 



WOODROW WILSON 



opinion on issues that are really very simple and 
are covered by elementary principles of inter- 
national law. President Wilson's action in warn- 
ing Americans to keep out of Mexico pending 
the existence of civil war was furiously denounced 
by his opponents in Congress as a shameful sur- 
render of American rights. As a matter of fact 
it was as ordinary a precaution as roping off the 
danger zone at a fire. England is proverbially 
urgent in claiming privileges of travel and inter- 
course for her subjects, but time and again she 
has warned her subjects to keep out of disturbed 
areas — as, for instance, in Macedonia, when that 
country was in a state of disorder like that in 
Mexico. The only place where people have a full 
and unqualified right to be is in their own coun- 
try. They have also the right to use the high 
seas, the common property of nations, but in time 
of war that right is qualified by the right of visita- 
tion and search possessed by belligerents under 
international law. Travel or residence, however, 
in a foreign country is a privilege that is condi- 
tional and not absolute in its nature. No one 
claims that our Government is bound to demand 

[240] 



THE MEXICAN QUESTION 



for our citizens the right to go where they please 
and stay where they please in Europe. If they 
do go they take their risks and they have no right 
to expect anything more from their Government 
than that it will insist that they shall receive 
legal treatment and that reparation shall be ob- 
tained in case of the violation of rights secured 
by treaty or acknowledged by international law. 
As a matter of fact many more Americans have 
probably gone into the European war area 
than have gone into JMexico since the outbreak 
of civil war there, and there has been no outcry 
in our home politics over their troubles. But 
whenever an outrage is perpetrated in Mexico, 
there is a clamor for immediate intervention. 
The course to be pursued in such matters is per- 
fectly well known. The immediate responsibility 
for preventing crime and punishing it when com- 
mitted rests upon the Government having juris- 
diction, and the first step is to demand satisfac- 
tion of that Government. This course has been 
steadily pursued in the case of JMexico and the 
Carranza Government has acted with promptitude 
and energy in pursuing and executing bandits 

[241] 



WOODROW WILSON 



implicated in the murder of American citizens. 
But the monstrous doctrine has been advanced 
in Congress that the Administration was recreant 
in not forthwith ordering our army into Mexico. 
Such things have been known to occur in the 
United States as the murder of ahens, but we 
should regard it as inconceivable truculence were 
it to be proposed in the parliament of the nation 
aggrieved not to apply to our Government for 
redress but to let slip the dogs of war. 

It is only fair to say that usually in the Con- 
gress of the United States action is moderate 
notwithstanding the supei'iicial violence of speech. 
Much of the talk about Mexico is like the 
transports of indignation that rack journalistic 
bosoms when an election is coming on. Violent 
speeches have been made against the President 
that did not express real feeling but were nothing 
more than a forensic version of the drum thump- 
ing of a political parade. But there is always 
the risk that in playing with fire the politicians 
may start a conflagration. It is generally con- 
ceded now that the war with Spain was unneces- 
sary. She was willing to submit to the demands 

[242] 



THE MEXICAN QUESTION 



of this country if allowed to do so, but a spirit 
was aroused that would be satisfied with nothing 
but war and the Administration was swept off 
its feet. It has required all of President Wilson's 
tenacity of purpose to keep our Government from 
being made the tool of interests having in view 
the exploitation of ]\Iexico, meanwhile making 
precedents w^hose arrogance and violence would 
be surely turned against us some day. 

There is nothing novel about President Wil- 
son's policy on the Mexican question, except his 
adroit utilization of opportunities to establish 
more cordial relations with all the American coun- 
tries. He took the first steps early in his admin- 
istration and the conference with the A. B. C. 
powers greatly facilitated the movement. The 
Pan-American Scientific Congress which met in 
Washington, December 27, 1915, to January 8, 
1916, provided an appropriate occasion for a 
public statement of the aims of the movement. 
On January 5, it was announced that a memoran- 
dum had been presented to the Latin- American 
diplomatic representatives, asking the different 
governments to subscribe to the following prin- 

[243] 



WOODROW WILSON 



ciples later to be embodied in a general conven- 
tion to which all are to be signatories: 

"(1.) The United States and all the other na- 
tions of this hemisphere mutually agree to 
guarantee the territorial integrity of the countries 
of this hemisphere. 

"(2.) All the nations agree to maintain the 
republican form of government. 

"(3.) All bind themselves to submit to settle- 
ment by diplomacy, arbitration, or investigating 
conmiissions as provided for by the several trea- 
ties already ratified, disputes of all kinds, includ- 
ing boundary troubles, but not controversies 
affecting the independence of each. 

" ( 4. ) General agreement whereby exportation 
of arms to any but the legally constituted gov- 
ernments of this hemisphere will be prohibited, 
and laws of neutrality adopted which will make 
it impossible for filibustering expeditions to 
threaten or carry on revolutions in neighboring 
republics." 

The announcement was received with sym- 
pathy and approval and the negotiations initiated 
by the memorandum are now going on. 

[244] 



CHAPTER XI 

THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 

THE outbreak of the European war was a 
most untoward event for President Wilson. 
His thoughts and his plans had been concerned 
with the domestic problems of our politics and 
his Cabinet had been chosen with a view to such 
occupations. The country was deeply in arrears 
as regards measures for adjusting law and ad- 
ministration to existing business and social needs, 
and he was in the first stage of a program of 
reform quite enough to consume a presidential 
term, when the explosion took place that shook 
the world. Apparently nothing could have been 
more inopportune, but the great upheavals and 
displacements of history are apt to begin when 
least expected. In February, 1792, Pitt informed 
the House of Commons that "unquestionably 
there never was a time in the history of this coun- 
try when from the situation in Europe we might 
more reasonably expect fifteen years of peace 

[245] 



WOODROW WILSON 



than the present moment." But the next year 
the wars of the French Revolution began and the 
Premier who had taken office intent upon domes- 
tic reform had war problems to face for the rest 
of his life. In 1870, Premier Ollivier of France 
declared that "on whatever side we look there is 
an absence of troublesome questions; at no mo- 
ment has the maintenance of the peace of Europe 
been better assured." Before the year was out the 
battle of Sedan had been fought and the French 
Empire had collapsed. On November 9, 1903, 
Premier Balfour of England declared: "I know 
not that any danger within the ken of human 
vision menaces in the smallest degree that peace 
which it should be our earnest endeavor to pre- 
serve." The war between Russia and Japan be- 
gan in less than four months thereafter. It is 
vv^ell known that the present war burst upon the 
deliberations of a Peace Congress, scattering the 
delegates. If we go by the instructions of his- 
tory it would seem to be impossible to foresee 
when Judgment Day will arrive for any nation. 
Not only were the war issues thrust upon a 
period dedicated to domestic reform, but in addi- 

[246] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



tion they came down upon President Wilson in 
a period of family affliction. Mrs. Wilson was in 
the last stages of a fatal illness when, on August 
4, 1914, President Wilson issued a statement pro- 
claiming to the nations of the world the neutral- 
ity of the United States. Although conditions 
were such as to preclude any hope of successful 
mediation, yet the fact that the United States had 
been a signer of The Hague Convention afforded 
fitting grounds for effort, and on August 5 he 
tendered his good offices for peace to any and 
all of the warring nations. This document was 
penned by President Wilson while he was sitting 
at Mrs. Wilson's bedside, the day before she died. 
It was a message addressed to Emperor William 
of Germany, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria- 
Hungary, Emperor Nicholas of Russia, King 
George of Great Britain, and President Poin- 
care of France, as follows: 

"As official head of one of the powers signatory 
to The Hague Convention, I feel it to be my 
privilege and my duty, under Article III of that 
Convention, to say to you in a spirit of most 
earnest friendship that I should welcome an op- 

[247] 



WOODROW WILSON 



portunity to act in the interest of European 
peace, either now or at any other time that might 
be thought more suitable, as an occasion to serve 
you and all concerned in a way that would afford 
me lasting cause for gratitude and happiness." 

Only formal acknowledgments were received 
from the belligerents, but President Wilson's 
offer of service still stands and his attitude is one 
of constant readiness to act for the restoration of 
peace whenever an opportunity arrives. After 
the battle of the Marne some intimations reached 
him of sufficient substance to encourage another 
effort and the German Government was ap- 
proached on the subject through Ambassador 
Gerard at Berlin. The Imperial Chancellor re- 
plied that as Germany's enemies had agreed to 
make peace only by joint action, the United 
States should obtain proposals of peace from the 
Allies, which must be such as to guarantee Ger- 
many against future attacks. It was evident that 
the time for mediation had not arrived and the 
President's efforts were not renewed so far as 
any direct appeal to the warring powers is con- 
cerned, but on September 8 he issued a proclama- 

[248] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



tion designating" Sunday, October 4, as a day of 
prayer for peace. 

Although the good offices of the President were 
rejected there were not wanting signs that his 
influence was deeply respected. On September 
7, 1914, the German Emperor addressed to Presi- 
dent Wilson a personal message in regard to the 
use of dum-dum bullets. A few days later Presi- 
dent Poincare sent a personal message on the 
same subject. On September 16 a commission 
appointed hy the King of the Belgians submitted 
to the President a statement with regard to Ger- 
man acts in Belgium. To all three appeals the 
President returned the same reply : 

"Presently, I pray God very soon, this war will 
be over. The day of accounting will then come, 
when I take it for granted the nations of Europe 
will assemble to determine a settlement. Where 
wrongs have been committed, their consequences 
and the relative responsibility involved will be 
assessed. 

"The nations of the world have fortunately by 
agreement made a plan for such a reckoning and 
settlement. What such a plan cannot compass, 

[249] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the opinion of mankind, the final arbiter in all 
such matters, will supply. It would be unwise, 
it would be premature, for a single government, 
however fortunately separated from the present 
struggle, it would even be inconsistent with the 
neutral position of any nation which, like this, has 
no part in the contest, to form or express a final 
judgment." 

President Wilson had to deal with war issues 
not merely as they affected the peace of Europe 
but also, and with immensely more urgency, with 
the way in which they affected the peace of 
America, so on August 18, he issued a broad 
appeal to the American people, in which he said : 

"The effect of the war upon the United States 
will depend upon what American citizens say or 
do. Every man who really loves America will 
act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, 
which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and 
friendliness to all concerned. The spirit of the 
nation in this critical matter will be determined 
largely by what individuals and society and those 
gathered in public meetings do and say, upon 
what newspapers and magazines contain, upon 

[250] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



what our ministers utter in their pulpits and men 
proclaim as their opinions on the streets. 

"The people of the United States are drawn 
from many nations, and chiefly from the nations 
now at war. It is natural and inevitable that 
there should be the utmost variety of sympathy 
and desire among them with regard to the issues 
and circumstances of the conflict. Some will wish 
one nation, others another to succeed in the mo- 
mentous struggle. It will be easy to excite pas- 
sion and difficult to allay it. Those responsible 
for exciting it will assume a heavy responsibility; 
responsibility for no less a thing than that the 
people of the United States, whose love of their 
country and whose loyalty to its Goverrmient 
should unite them as Americans all, bound in 
honor and affection to think first of her and her 
interests, may be divided into camps of hostile 
opinions hot against each other, involved in the 
war itself in impulse and opinion, if not in action. 
Such divisions among us would be fatal to our 
peace of mind and might seriously stand in the 
way of proper performance of our duty as one 
great nation at peace, the one people holding it- 

[251] 



WOODROW WILSON 



self ready to play a part of impartial mediation 
and speak the counsels of peace and accommoda- 
tion, not as a partisan but as a friend. 

"I venture, therefore, my fellow-countrymen, 
to speak a solemn word of warning to you against 
that deepest, most subtle, most essential breach 
of neutrality which may spring out of partisan- 
ship, out of passionately taking sides. The 
United States must be neutral in fact as well as 
in name during these days that are to try men's 
souls. We must be impartial in thought as well 
as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments 
as well as upon every transaction that might be 
construed as a preference of one party to the 
struggle before another." 

The evils which this address deplored were not 
wholly averted by it and in his treatment of the 
war issues President Wilson has had to move 
through a storm of detraction beating upon him 
from all sides. He has been condemned by some 
as being too aggressive and by some as not being 
aggressive enough. The New York Times of 
December 1, 1915, and many other newspapers 
of the same date contained a statement from Mr. 

[252] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



Bryan censuring the Administration for being 
too militaristic, and one from Mr. Roosevelt, cen- 
suring the Administration for being too pacific 
in its tendencies. President Wilson has been 
condemned on the one hand because he caiTied his 
insistence upon the rights of American citizens 
to a point that might drag the country into war, 
and on the other hand he has been condemned 
because he did not promptly throw the whole 
weight and power of the United States in opposi- 
tion to the violation of neutral rights committed 
by the invasion of Belgium. It is much too soon 
to attempt to reach a decision on the merits of 
the case. The case itself is still incomplete. It 
will be time enough to sum up the qualities of 
President Wilson's management of our national 
interests, after the crisis is passed. jMeanwhile 
all that the biographer or the historian can safely 
undertake is to note the actual character of the 
policy pursued, so as to facilitate an intelligent 
opinion of it. 

The very fact that extremes meet in condemna- 
tion of President Wilson's policy, of itself indi- 
cates that he has kept to the middle of the road, 

[253] 



WOODROW WILSON 



not leaning either to the one side or the other. 
When his course is compared with that taken by 
his predecessors in hke circumstances it is found 
that he has pursued the same course as that taken 
by President Washington, and has acted on the 
same principles as those which were stated by 
Alexander Hamilton in behalf of Washington's 
Administration. The rising of European nations 
against the French republic in 1793 excited sym- 
pathy and indignation in this country comparable 
with that excited by the invasion of Belgium dur- 
ing the present w^ar. Washington issued a 
proclamation of the neutrality of the United 
States which was bitterly censured as perfidious, 
cowardly, and ungrateful. In defense of Wash- 
ington's policy Hamilton wrote his Pacificus let- 
ters published during the summer of 1793. In 
them he examined seriatim the objections raised, 
laying down general principles that are as per- 
tinent now as they were then. He observed: 

"Instances of conferring benefits from kind 
and benevolent dispositions or feelings towards 
the person benefited, without any other interest 
on the part of the person who renders the service, 

[254] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



than the pleasure of doing a good action, occur 
every day among individuals. But among na- 
tions they perhaps never occur. . , . Indeed, the 
rule of morality in this respect is not precisely the 
same between nations, as between individuals. 
The duty of making its own welfare the guide of 
its actions, is much stronger upon the former than 
upon the latter ; in proportion to the greater mag- 
nitude and importance of national, compared 
with individual happiness, and to the greater 
permanency of the effects of national, than of 
individual conduct. Existing millions, and for 
the most part future generations, are concerned 
in the present measures of a government; while 
the consequences of the private action of an in- 
dividual ordinarily terminate with himself, or are 
circumscribed within a narrow compass. 

"Whence it follows that an individual may, on 
numerous occasions, meritoriously indulge the 
emotions of generosity and benevolence, not only 
with a view to, but even at the expense of, his own 
interest. But a government can rarely, if at all, 
be justifiable in pursuing a similar course; and, 
if it does so, ought to confine itself within much 

[255] 



WOODROW WILSON 



stricter bounds. Good offices which are indiffer- 
ent to the interest of a nation performing them, 
or which are compensated by the existence or ex- 
pectation of some reasonable equivalent, or which 
produce an essential good to the nation to which 
they are rendered, without real detriment to the 
affairs of the benefactors, prescribe perhaps the 
limits of national generosity or benevolence." 

In a footnote Hamilton added: "This con- 
clusion derives confirmation from the reflection, 
that under every form of government, rulers are 
only trustees for the happiness and interest of 
their nation, and cannot, consistently with their 
trust, follow the suggestions of kindness or hu- 
manity towards others, to the prejudice of their 
constituents." 

The above exhibits the principle on which Wil- 
son acted, and to arrive at sound conclusions on 
any particular, it should be considered with that 
principle in view, namely, the principle of trustee- 
ship. Much burning indignation has been poured 
upon him for his failure to go to the rescue of 
Belgium, just as Washington was censured for 
failing to go to the rescue of France. Some of 

[256] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



the philippics that have been uttered on this theme 
by eminent politicians make a fine display of their 
powers of forceful language, the vehemence of 
which is fully warranted if their point of view be 
accepted. If President Wilson had acted in a 
spirit of knight-errantry he might have avoided 
the reproaches now heaped upon him by those 
who view the case through the medium of their 
sj^mpathies. What he did do was to make the 
welfare of his own country the guide of his ac- 
tions. This plea is contemptuously rejected by 
his opponents, who point out with logical per- 
tinence that our national welfare is involved by 
such a struggle and that the fate of Belgium 
today may be that of the United States tomorrow, 
so that prompt action in her behalf would be 
timel}^ action in our own behalf. As to this it 
may be remarked that if remote and indirect 
consequences are to be taken into account there 
are practically no bounds to national duty, for 
to some extent the interests of all countries and 
of all peoples are interdependent. But the duties 
of trusteeship, whether private or public, are 
confined to actual and definite obligations. All 

[257] 



\ 



WOODROW WILSON 



the objections raised against Wilson's course ap- 
ply quite as fully to Washington's course, and 
the principle involved in both cases is the same — 
the principle of trusteeship. On this point the 
policy of the Wilson Administration hinges. 
That a larger, more generous view of duty might 
have been taken is a position that is logically 
tenable. But if the principle of trusteeship, as 
adopted by Washington and formulated by 
Hamilton, is accepted as sound, then the course 
pursued by Wilson must be approved, since its 
particulars, when examined from this point of 
view, show conformity to that principle. The 
fact may also be noted that in the light of history 
it has generally appeared that minding one's own 
business has been as sound a rule of national be- 
havior in respect to ethical results as in respect 
to national interest. When the history of the 
present war is written, so that its events shall 
appear in their proper proportions, it may appear 
that the United States, by keeping out of the 
struggle, was able to render far greater service to 
Belgium than by rushing to her side the moment 
she was attacked. It may be remembered that 

[258] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



the good Samaritan did not gain his reputation 
by avenging the crime but by bringing rehef to 
the victim. 

While Wilson's policy has disappointed some 
who hold chivalric ideals of national behavior it 
has also oiFended others who — regarding war as 
always bad and peace as always good — ^liave 
feared that Wilson's insistence on the rights of 
American citizens was being carried too far. It 
has been urged that due consideration of the 
national welfare should make individuals willing 
to forego for the time the exercise of the ordinary 
rights of travel ; and, even if they were willing to 
take their chances, the question would remain, 
w^hether they should be able to count upon any 
support from the Government. It has been con- 
tended that if they chose to get into harm's way 
by traveling in vessels exposed to attack, they 
ought not to look to the Government to help 
them out of trouble or to secure redress should 
they suffer injury. It has been urged with great 
force that if our Government insists upon assert- 
ing the rights of American citizens, as defined by 
international law, it is committed to a course that 

[259] 



WOODROW WILSON 



might end in war. Considerations of this general 
nature caused a break in the Cabinet. On June 
8, 1915, Mr. Bryan resigned the office of Secre- ^ 
tary of State, and was succeeded by Robert Lan- 
sing, formerly Counselor of the State Depart- 
ment. The selection was significant as indicative 
of the President's intention of standing firm upon 
the law and of claiming the full measure of Amer- 
ican rights under international law. 

This determination also was in accord with the 
principle of trusteeship, for although peace is 
generally desirable, occasions may arise when it 
is to the interest of the nation to wage war. This 
contingency was distinctly mentioned by Wash- 
ington in his "Farewell Address," in which he 
advised that we should keep in such a position 
that "we may choose peace or war, as our interest, 
guided by justice, shall counsel." Wilson's 
course showed that the possibility of war was not 
going to deter him from asserting American 
rights in dealings with the belligerent countries. 
He might advise American citizens to keep out of 
Mexico because of the anarchy there and the lack 
of authority that could be held to accountability; 

[260] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



but there were no such complications as regards 
travel on the high seas. This distinction was thus 
noted by Secretary Lansing in a statement issued 
on January 12, 1916: 

"The high seas are common territory to every 
nation. Territory is always under the sover- 
eignty of a nation, and the authorities of a nation 
can do what they please in that sovereignty. On 
the high seas a noncombatant, whether neutral 
or belligerent, has a right to pass to and fro with- 
out having his life endangered, unless he is on a 
public ship. In a territory he only has the right 
to pass to and fro with the consent of the authori- 
ties. If it is uncertain who the authorities are in 
that territory, he runs at once the danger of loss 
of liberty and life." 

President Wilson did not flinch from asserting 
neutral rights, for fear of possible consequences, 
and while this course has involved this country 
in serious controversies with belligerents on both 
sides of the struggle, it has manifestly secured 
more respect for neutral rights than was ever 
before evinced by great powers fighting desper- 
ately for their national existence. At this writing 

[261] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the war is still going on; the time is unhappily 
still distant when a complete survey of its diplo- 
matic incidents may he taken, but there is already 
a striking record of achievement. Examination 
of the details impresses one with the multifarious 
nature of the tasks performed. Our diplomatic 
correspondence with belligerent govermnents in 
respect to neutral rights and commerce was 
enough to fill two large printed volumes, up to 
October 15, 1915, and the mass has much in- 
creased since then and is still increasing. This 
is due wholly to the number and variety of the 
topics to be considered, as in style our notes have 
been remarkably direct and concise, meeting 
every issue squarely. A good illustration is the 
correspondence on the case of the William P. 
Frye, an American ship that was sunk by a 
German cruiser. While reserving the point 
of whether or not the German commander 
acted legally, the German Government agreed 
to pay actual damages. To this the reply was 
made: 

"A payment made on this understanding would 
be entirely acceptable to the Government of the 

[262] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



United States, provided that the acceptance of 
such payment should likewise be understood to 
be without prejudice to the contention of the 
Government of the United States that the sink- 
ing of the Frije was without legal justification, 
and provided also that an arrangement can be 
agreed upon for the immediate submission to ar- 
bitration of the question of legal justification, 
in so far as it involves the interpretation of exist- 
ing treaty stipulations." 

Public attention has been directed chiefly to 
cases in w^hich passenger vessels wxre sunk with 
loss of life through German submarine warfare, 
and this has given the impression that our conten- 
tion has been chiefly with Germany. That im- 
pression is correct as regards the importance of ,^ 
the issues involved, but meanwliile the greatest 
number of actual cases involving neutral rights 
have been such as to produce contention with 
England. Questions of contraband and of trade 
with neutrals, detention of American ships, and 
interference with American consignments have 
furnished matter for much diplomatic corre- 
spondence. The following dispatch of July 14, 

[263] 



WOODROW WILSON 



1915, to Ambassador Page, states the position 
which our Government has maintained : 

"In view of differences which are understood 
to exist between the two Governments as to the 
principles of law applicable in prize court pro- 
ceedings in cases involving American interests, 
and in order to avoid any misunderstanding as 
to the attitude of the United States in regard to 
such proceedings, you are instructed to inform 
the British Government that in so far as the 
interests of American citizens are concerned the 
Government of the United States will insist upon 
their rights under the principles and rules of in- 
ternational law as hitherto established, governing 
neutral trade in time of war, without limitation 
or impairment by Orders in Council or other 
municipal legislation by the British Government, 
and will not recognize the validity of prize court 
proceedings taken under restraints imposed by 
British municipal law in derogation of the rights 
of American citizens under international law." 

Since the United States has in the past exer- 
cised the right of embargo upon exports of any 
commodity which might aid the enemy's cause, it 

[264] 



i 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



cannot now deny that right to other nations and 
must be wilhng- to submit to such restraints upon 
trade as are involved by a reasonable exercise of 
belligerent rights. What is reasonable in par- 
ticular cases is a question of judgment upon 
V, hich the United States has contended for liberal- 
ity, and the British Government has steadily 
manifested a conciliatory disposition. On some 
points prompt conij^liance was made with the 
demands of our Government. When the British 
Government was notified that the presence of war 
vessels in the vicinity of American ports was of- 
fensive to our Government they w^ere promptly 
"v^dthdrawn and our Government was notified that 
orders had been issued "impressing on His JSIa- 
jesty's officers the duty of strictly observing the 
terms of the United States neutrality regula- 
tions." 

Grave differences with the German Govern- 
ment arose over its proclamation on February 4, 
1915, of a war zone about Great Britain, entrance 
into wliich would make any vessel liable to 
destruction. The proclamation notified all neu- 
tral powers "that it is of urgency to recommend 

[265] 



WOODROW WILSON 



to tlieir own vessels to steer clear of these waters." 
The reply of our Government, issued on Feb- 
ruary 10, was a vigorous protest against such 
disregard of international law, concluding with 
notice to Germany that it would be held to strict 
accountability : 

"If the commanders of German vessels of war 
should act upon the presumption that the flag of 
the United States was not being used in good 
faith and should destroy on the high seas an 
Am^erican vessel or the lives of American citizens, 
it would be difficult for the Government of the 
United States to view the act in any other light 
than as an indefensible violation of neutral rights, 
which it would be very hard indeed to reconcile 
with the friendly relations now so happily sub- 
sisting between the two Governments. 

"If such a deplorable situation should arise, 
the Imperial German Government can readily 
appreciate that the Government of the United 
States would be constrained to hold the Imperial 
German Government to a strict accountability 
for such acts of their naval authorities and to 
take any steps it might be necessary to take to 

[266] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



safeguard American lives and property and to 
secure to American citizens the full enjoyment 
of their acknowledged rights on the high seas." 
Correspondence ensued, in the course of which 
Germany did not contend that the policy she had 
announced was in accord with existing provisions 
of international law, but that those provisions 
had been already modified by Great Britain to 
her advantage and to the detriment of Germany, 
and that the war zone policy was a retaliatory 
measure dictated by the paramount law of self- 
preservation. Germany was willing to modify 
her policy if the United States could induce Great 
Britain to modify her policy. In compliance with 
Germany's request representations were made to 
Great Britain on the subject, without practical 
result, and some suggestions offered by our Gov- 
ernment as to the scope of an agreement were 
also ineffectual. Underlying the discussion and 
shaping its results were the inflexible determina- 
tion of the British Government to cut off Ger- 
many from all commerce by sea and the resolu- 
tion of the German Government to go to any 
lengths to shatter British naval supremacy. The 

[267] 



WOODROW WILSON 



United States was at issue with both parties on 
the question of neutral rights, and on March 30, 
1915, sent a long note to the British Govern- 
ment, protesting against the Order in Council of 
March 15, which was declared to be "a practical 
assertion of unlimited belligerent rights over neu- 
tral commerce within the whole European area, 
and an almost unqualified denial of the sovereign 
rights of the nations now at peace." 

Our controversies over war issues were more 
acute with Great Britain than with Germany 
w4ien a tremendous shift of interest and feeling 
was brought about by the sinking of the Lusi- 
tariia, drowning 1,260 persons, among them 107 
American citizens, followed by events of similar 
character. In dealing with them our Govern- 
ment has consistently maintained that Germany's 
war zone proclamation and her warnings as to 
the risk of travel therein do not in the least abate 
her responsibihty for "unlawful and inhumane" 
acts committed by her officers; that reparation 
shall be made so far as reparation is possible ; and 
that steps shall be taken to prevent the recurrence 
of such events. In the correspondence that en- 

[268] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



sued relations between the two countries were 
strained almost to the breaking point, but finally 
Germany acquiesced in the position taken by our 
Government. Under the date of September 1, 
1915, Germany gave notice: "Liners wull not be 
sunk by our submarines without warning and 
without safety of the lives of noncombatants, 
provided the liners do not try to escape or offer 
resistance." On October 5, Germany expressed 
regret for the sinking of the Arabic j, expressed 
willingness to pay an indemnity, and declared 
that instructions "have been made so stringent 
that the recurrence of incidents similar to the 
Arabic case is considered out of the question." 

As a matter of fact similar incidents have since 
then occurred in the Mediterranean, with Aus- 
tria-Hungary as the offender. The sinking of 
the Ancona with great loss of life was an event 
which called forth a note of which the following 
is the concluding portion: 

"As the good relations of the two countries 
must rest upon a common regard for law and 
humanity, the Government of the United States 
cannot be expected to do otherwise than to de- 

[269] 



WOODROW WILSON 



mand that the Imperial and Royal Government 
denounce the sinking of the Ancona as an illegal 
and indefensible act; that the officer who per- 
petrated the deed be punished, and that repara- 
tion by the payment of an indemnity be made 
for the citizens of the United States who were 
killed or injured by the attack on the vessel. 

"The Government of the United States expects 
that the Austro-Hungarian Government, appre- 
ciating the gravity of the case, will accede to its 
demand promptly, and it rests this expectation 
on the belief that the Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
ment will not sanction or defend an act which is 
condemned by the world as inhumane and bar- 
barous, which is abhorrent to all civilized nations, 
and which has caused the death of innocent Amer- 
ican citizens." 

In reply the Austro-Hungarian Government 
unreservedly concurred in "the principle that 
enemy private vessels, so far as they do not flee 
or offer resistance, shall not be destroyed before ^ 
the persons aboard are secured." 

The present indications are that in these nego- 
tiations President Wilson has obtained a signal 

[270] 

i 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



diplomatic triumph. The German Government 
has been convinced that her position was unten- 
able and her acquiescence in the demands of the 
United States was expHcitly made known in the 
following communication received on January 
7, 1916: 

"(1) German submarines in the Mediterra- 
nean had, from the beginning, orders to conduct 
cruiser warfare against enemy merchant vessels 
only in accordance with general principles of 
international law, and in particular measures of 
reprisal, as applied in the war zone around the 
British Isles, were to be excluded. 

"(2) German submarines are therefore per- 
mitted to destroy enemy merchant vessels in the 
Mediterranean — i. e., passenger as well as freight 
ships as far as they do not try to escape or offer 
resistance — only after passengers and crews have 
been accorded safety. 

*'(3) All cases of destruction of enemy mer- 
chant ships in the ISIediterranean in which Ger- 
man submarines are concerned are made the sub- 
ject of official investigation and, besides, subject 
to regular prize court proceedings. In so far as 

[271] 



WOODROW WILSON 



American interests are concerned, the German 
Government will communicate the result to the 
American Government. Thus, also, in the Persia 
ease, if the circumstances should call for it. 

"(4) If commanders of German submarines 
should not have obeyed the orders given to them 
they will be punished ; furthermore, the German 
Government will make reparation for damage 
caused by death of or injuries to American citi- 



zens." 



With the war still going on it would be rash 
to make any prediction as to the permanence of 
any arrangement, but the indications are that 
President Wilson has successfully vindicated neu- 
tral rights in the midst of the greatest war the 
world has ever known. 

While President Wilson was struggling to de- 
fend neutral rights and to defend the national 
honor, he was exposed to a bitter warfare in his 
own country. Organized and systematic at- 
tempts were made to violate American neutrality 
and to levy war in the United States by secret 
agency. Bombs were planted in the cargoes of 
vessels, numerous incendiary fires took place in 

[272] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



arms and powder factories, and strikes and labor 
troubles were fomented. On September 8, 1915, 
the recall of ]Mr. Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian 
Ambassador at Washington, was demanded be- 
cause of his complicity in plans to instigate strikes 
in American manufacturing plants. On Decem- 
ber 3, the immediate recall of the German at- 
taches, Captains Boy-Ed and von Papen, was 
demanded. The injuries to which the United 
States had been subjected by intestine foes were 
characterized by President Wilson in his message 
to Congress, delivered on December 7, 1915, in 
a way that elicited sympathetic response in every 
part of the country. He said: 

"I am sorry to say that the gravest threats 
against our national peace and safety have been 
uttered within our own borders. There are citi- 
zens of the United States, I blush to admit, born 
under other flags, but welcomed under our gener- 
ous naturalization laws to the full freedom and 
opportunity of America, who have poured the 
poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our 
national life; who have sought to bring the au- 
thority and good name of our Government into 

[273] 



WOODROW WILSON 



contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they 
thought it effective for their vindictive purposes 
to strike at them, and to debase our politics to 
the uses of foreign intrigue. Their number is 
not great as compared with the whole number of 
those sturdy hosts by which our nation has been 
enriched in recent generations out of virile foreign 
stocks; but it is great enough to have brought 
deep disgrace upon us and to have made it neces- 
sary that we should promptly make use of proc- 
esses of law by which we may be purged of their 
corrupt distempers. 

"America never witnessed anything like this 
before. It never dreamed it possible that men 
sworn into its own citizenship, men drawn out of 
great free stocks such as supplied some of the 
best and strongest elements of that little, but now 
heroic, nation that in a high day of old staked its 
very life to free itself from every entanglement 
that had darkened the fortunes of the older na- 
tions and set up a new standard here — that men 
of such origins and such free choices of allegiance 
would ever turn in malign reaction against the 
Government and people who had welcomed and 

[274] 



i 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



nurtured tliem and seek to make this proud coun- 
try once more a hotbed of European passion. 
A Httle while ago such a thing would have seemed 
incredible. Because it was incredible we made no 
preparation for it. We would have been almost 
ashamed to prepare for it, as if we were suspicious 
of ourselves, our own comrades and neighbors! 
But the ugly and incredible thing has actually 
come about and we are without adequate Federal 
laws to deal with it. 

"I urge you to enact such laws at the earliest 
possible moment and feel that in doing so I am 
urging you to do nothing less than save the honor 
and self-respect of the nation. Such creatures of 
passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed 
out. They are not many, but they are infinitely 
malignant, and the hand of our power should 
close over them at once. They have formed plots 
to destroy property, they have entered into con- 
spiracies against the neutrality of the Govern- 
ment, they have sought to pry into every confi- 
dential transaction of the Government in order 
to serve interests alien to our own. It is possible' 
to deal with these things very effectually. I need 

[275] 



WOODROW WILSON 



not suggest the terms in which they may be dealt 
with. 

"I wish that it could be said that only a few 
men, misled by mistaken sentiments of allegiance 
to the Governments under which they were born, ^ 
had been guilty of disturbing the self-possession ! 
and misrepresenting the temper and principles 
of the country during these days of terrible war, 
when it would seem that every man who was truly 
an American would instinctively make it his duty 
and his pride to keep the scales of judgment even 
and prove himself a partisan of no nation but his 
own. But it cannot. There are some men among 
us, and many resident abroad who, though born | 
and bred in the United States and calling them- 
selves Americans, have so forgotten themselves 
and their honor as citizens as to put their pas- 
sionate sympathy with one or the other side in 
the great European conflict above their regard 
for the peace and dignity of the United States. 
They also preach and practice disloyalty. No 
laws, I suppose, can reach corruptions of the 
mind and heart ; but I should not speak of others 
without also speaking of these and expressing 

[276] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



the even deeper humiliation and scorn which 
every self-possessed and tlioughtfuUy patriotic 
American must feel when he thinks of them and 
of the discredit they are daily bringing upon us." 

The leading topic of this message was pre- 
paredness. President Wilson's policy in this 
respect was thus stated: 

"We regard war merely as asserting the rights 
of a people against aggression. And we are as 
fiercely jealous of coercive or dictatorial power 
within our own nation as of aggression from 
without. We will not maintain a standing army 
except for uses which are as necessary in times 
of peace as in times of war; and we shall always 
see to it that our military peace establishment is 
no larger than is actually and continuously 
needed for the uses of days in which no enemies 
move against us. But we do believe in a body 
of free citizens ready and sufficient to take care 
of themselves and of the Governments which they 
have set up to serve them. In our Constitutions 
themselves we have commanded that "the right 
of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be 
infringed," and our confidence has been that our 

[277] 



WOODROW WILSON 



safety in times of danger would lie in the rising 
of the nation to take care of itself, as the farmers 
rose at Lexington. | 

*'But war has never been a mere matter of men 
and guns. It is a thing of disciplined might. 
If our citizens are ever to fight effectively upon 
a sudden summons, they must know how modern 
fighting is done, and what to do when the sum- 
mons comes to render themselves immediately 
available and immediately effective. And the ] 
Government must be their servant in this matter, 
must supply them with the training they need to j| 
take care of themselves and of it. The military 
arm of their Government, which they will not 
allow to direct them, they may properly use to 
serve them and make their independence secure — 
and not their own independence merely, but the 
rights also of those with whom they have made 
common cause, should they also be put in jeop- 1 
ardy. They must be fitted to play the great role 
in the world, and particularly in this hemisphere, 
for which they are qualified by principle and by 
chastened ambition to play. 

"It is with these ideals in mind that the plans 

[278] 



THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES 



of the Department of War for more adequate 
national defense were conceived which will be laid 
before you, and w hich I urge you to sanction and 
put into effect as soon as they can be properly 
scrutinized and discussed." 

These plans involved important changes in our 
national methods and a discussion was initiated 
that has generated new issues not yet fully de- 
veloped at this writing. In accordance with his 
habit of appeal to the court of public opinion, 
President Wilson accepted invitations to address 
public meetings at which his position was frankly 
stated and the reasons for his course were made 
known. 



CHAPTER XII 

PERSONAL TRAITS 

ONE cannot really note personal traits with- 
out a personal point of view, so in this chap- 
ter the author will speak in his own person, of his 
own impressions. Through the courtesy of Mr. 
Albert Shaw, editor of the Review of Reviews, 
I am permitted to use a character sketch pre- 
pared for that magazine in 1912, at the time 
Woodrow Wilson became the Democratic party's 
nominee for president. It pictures the man as 
I saw him, at the time he stepped on the stage of 
national affairs. It is as follows: 

"The most salient characteristic of Woodrow j 
Wilson is a love of fun. This is what most im- 
pressed me when I first got to know him over a 
dozen years ago, and that early impression has 
been often renewed since. When our acquaint- 
ance began I was an editor and I had a notion 
that college dons were persons of starched be- 

[280] 



PERSONAL TRAITS 



havior, so I was surprised, although pleased, by 
the eagerness with which he seized upon the 
humorous aspect of anj^^ situation. It was at the 
meeting of a learned society that brought to- 
gether a number of university men, and I had 
prepared myself for something of a didactic or- 
deal. But as soon as the regular 'exercises were 
over, Wilson began to tell stories, relate anec- 
dotes, and carry on a discursive conversation that 
for candor, logic and incisiveness made me think 
of Johnson's table talk, when the great Cham was 
in a genial mood and talked English instead of 
Latin. I noticed that while his talk was mani- 
festly an improvisation, his thoughts came with 
their clothes on. There was a balance to his 
periods revealing an instinctive sense of form, 
and his diction was terse and idiomatic. This 
spontaneity of utterance is habitual. His dignity 
is allowed to take care of itself, which it is abun- 
dantly able to do, as it is always present, although 
he does not seem to be aware of it. 

"This love of fun crops out on every occasion. 
When he was nominated for governor of New 
Jersey the family experienced a shock from the 

[281] 



WOODROW WILSON 



do-vvnpour of publicity upon their home. The 
ladies winced under it before they learned that it 
is one of the things that goes in the day's work 
for the family of a man who is nominated to high 
office. But until they were hardened to it it was 
not always quite pleasant to read in the papers 
remarks upon the way in which Mr. Wilson's 
nose fits his face and his ears are adjusted to his 
head. But he himself got hold of a limerick that 
seemed to him to state his position exactly, and 
he recited it with glee: 

As a beauty I am not a star; 

There are others more handsome by far. 

But my face — I don't mind it 

For I am behind it; 

The people in front get the jar. 

"Whatever his experience may be, he instinc- 
tively sees the funny side of things, and he re- 
turns from every excursion with a fund of amuse- 
ment for the home circle as a bee brings honey 
to the hive. It is a merry home circle. There 
seem to be no secrets there. The Governor speaks 
frankly and unreservedly upon any matter that 
may come up. His table talk takes a wide range. 

[282] 



PERSONAL TRAITS 



He is omnivorous in his reading and expansive in 
his mental curiosity. Intellectual narrowness is 
his great aversion. I have heard him describe 
the class of scholars who dwarf themselves by 
confinement to one subject as 'ignorant special- 
ists.' Of Governor Wilson it may be said that 
whatever concerns humanity interests him, so that 
at one sitting at his table one may hear talk of 
Kipling's latest poem, of Chesterton's most re- 
cent paradox, of football prospects, events in the 
religious world, the latest limerick, the political 
myths by which people are imposed upon as re- 
gards the nature of our Constitution, the trend 
of contemporaneous philosophy, personal anec- 
dotes, and interspersed throughout a lot of appo- 
site stories. 

"Woodrow Wilson is not a story-teller in the 
usual sense of the term. He does not save up 
and give out funny stories just because they are 
funny, but his stories come up in his talk by w^ay 
of illustration and they possess logical pertinence. 
He has a gift for dramatic narrative and can 
describe a scene in a way that brings it vividly 
before one. His propensity for humorous ob- 

[283] 



WOODROW WILSON 



servation preserves him from tedium in the many 
formal proceedings in which he is called to take 
part because of his official position. They could 
not be so dull or so slow but that he could find 
something interesting or suggestive. He seems 
to be little or not at all exposed to boredom, and 
arrives fresh and buoyant at the end of what to 
most people would be a wearying experience. 
So far from being tired of it all, he may rehearse 
its humorous phases with dramatic gusto when he 
gets back to the hearthstone. I happened to be 
present when he gave an account of some public 
exercises in which he had taken part not long 
before. A presentation was to be made to some 
notable who was so crowded by the committee 
on the stage that he sat with his feet drawn tight 
to his chair and with his high hat pressed close to 
his stomach under his clasped hands. The orator 
making the presentation speech was right in 
front, almost in physical contact, but as he pitched 
his voice so as to reach the audience the opening 
w^ords, 'Honored Sir!' came in a loud shout. The 
recipient of the attention was so startled that he 
made a jump that crushed in his hat like a con- 

[284] 



PERSONAL TRAITS 



certina. The shout that Wilson himself gave in 
imitation of the strenuous orator rang through 
the house in a way that brought down some of the 
family to see what was the matter and to join in 
the fun. 

"This openness of conduct belongs to Wood- 
row Wilson by inlieritance. Older members of 
the Princeton faculty who knew his father say 
that he had the same freedom of spirit. A pro- 
found theologian, he was fond of jest and anec- 
dote, was expansive in his sympathies and varied 
in his interests. In temperament Woodrow Wil- 
son is said to resemble his father closely. It is 
probably owing to this phase of his character that 
it does not seem to his friends that he takes a 
good picture. They are accustomed to seeing him 
wdth a twinkle in his eye, and with lines of good 
humor curving about his mouth and radiating 
from the corners of his eyes. But it takes con- 
tact with people to produce these manifestations. 
The face that the camera gets is that which has 
been modeled by Scotch- Irish ancestry and theo- 
logical lineage, expressing gravity, seriousness 
and determination. In the ordinary bearing of 

[285] 



WOODROW WILSON 



the man these quahties are latent but are not con- 
spicuous, as they are in his picture. 

*'His humor is not broad but is drj^ and clean. 
His mind is not squeamish but it is pure. His 
conversation is remarkable for intellectual copi- 
ousness. His mind is rich in ideas and he spends 
them freely in his talk. He says what he thinks 
without fear of consequences. These traits may 
not be such as are now ordinarily associated with 
political eminence, but that is because American 
political conditions are now peculiar. The men 
who made the Constitution and set up the Gov- 
ernment used to talk copiously and write volumi- 
nously. The notion that a statesman should be 
as silently wise as an owl and as gravely medita- 
tive as a cow has come in only since government 
by private arrangement has been substituted for 
government by public discussion. 

"He has extraordinary capacity for getting 
through work without strain or fret. This com- 
petency, while founded upon natural ability, is 
largely the product of intellectual discipline. He 
has brought his faculties under such control that 
they are always at his command, ready for obe- 

[286] 



PERSONAL TRAITS 



dient service at any time in any place. His ability 
as a public speaker, now so marked, has been 
greatly developed since the beginning of his 
career. He had some natural diffidence to over- 
come, and, curiously enough, notwithstanding the 
extraordinary facility he now possesses, a trace 
of it still remains. By practice his faculty has 
been so improved that it now transcends that of 
the ordinary speaker, as much as the agility of an 
athlete exceeds that of an ordinary man. But 
to this day he still feels a nervous tension at the 
start that produces a feeling of "goneness" in 
the pit of the stomach. It disappears the moment 
he hears the sound of his voice. Then he loses all 
sense of personal consciousness in the exercise of 
his powers so that the address goes on almost as 
in a state of automatism. 

"His voice has a vibrant quality that carries 
its tones without strain or effort. He speaks 
very distinctly, and although his voice does not 
seem to be raised above a conversational pitch, 
it is heard without difficulty, whether in a great 
auditorium or in the open air. When he has to 
make an important speech, he prepares himself 

[287] 



WOODROW WILSON 



carefully as to matter, but he can safely trust 
himself to the occasion for his diction, which is 
unfailing in literary distinction. He has read so 
extensively and thought so deeply that he always 
has something to say and he never has to fall back 
upon commonplaces. No man ever possessed in 
a more eminent degree the faculty of thinking 
on his feet. 

"He is fond of out-of-door exercise of any 
kind, finding in that a healthful change from the 
occupations of his study. Some years ago he 
was very fond of bicycling, but of late years golf 
is his favorite game. In his personal habits he is 
abstemious. He neither smokes nor drinks. Al- 
though inclined to be spare in figure he has a 
wiry strength, conserved by his life-long habit of 
temperance in all things and replenished by a fine 
faculty for taking his rest. He is a good sleeper, 
and nothing that can happen seems able to agitate 
his mind or cause insomnia. This makes him a 
good traveler. He can turn in and get his night's 
rest as usual, as he flies across the country in a 
sleeping car. 

"From the freedom and variety of his conversa- 

[288] 



PERSONAL TRAITS 



tion one would get the idea that his mind is very 
open to new impressions. This is the case, and 
yet at the same time his plans in all matters of 
importance are the outcome of a process of in- 
cubation. He is open to advice and likes to talk 
things over, but his conclusions are his own, and 
once formed they are firmly held. It is useless 
to approach him with any argument based upon 
his personal advantage or convenience. It must 
go to the merits of the case to receive his consid- 
eration. Tenacity of purpose is a very strong 
trait of his character. When he has determined 
upon any policy, he adheres to it with constancy 
and perseverance, no matter what obstacles may 
be encountered. His spirits are remarkably 
equable, neither elated by success nor discouraged 
by failure. He is easy and democratic in his 
manners, meeting all sorts and conditions of men 
without reserve or precaution. His fellow towns- 
men instinctively regard him as a member of the 
community, approachable in any interest of the 
community b}^ any member thereof. There are, 
however, two kinds of people with whom he seems 
to enter into mental communion most readily. 

[289] 



WOODROW WILSON 



One kind includes just plain, common people, 
making no pretensions to learning, but solid and 
honest in their intuitions and prejudices; from 
them he draws inspiration. The other kind in- 
cludes people of ripe culture and wide informa- 
tion ; from them he gets mental exercise through 
bouts of intellectual discussion. 

"Whatever he does, whether it be work or play 
or conversation, he does it with a whole heart. 
He never dawdles. He is always eager, alert, 
animated, whether writing, lecturing, speaking, 
chatting or playing. Milton's famous passage 
about those who "scorn delights and live labori- 
ous days" is not applicable to him. He gets 
through a great amount of work, but his thinking 
machine is so well adjusted and runs so smoothly 
that its operation seems a functional satisfaction 
rather than labor. The quatrain that Robert 
Louis Stevenson put up in his study would be 
quite in place in Woodrow Wilson's study too : 

This is the study where a smiling God 
Sees day by day the path of duty trod. 
My work He praises and He seems to say 
The day is brief; be dihgent in play. 

[290] 



PERSONAL TRAITS 



"During his campaign for governor it suited 
his pohtical opponents to describe him as a man 
who had led a cloistered life so that he was un- 
familiar with affairs and was wanting in adminis- 
trative capacity. Such a notion seemed very 
grotesque to those who knew Woodrow Wilson. 
It altogether misconceived the nature of a univer- 
sity president's work. The post calls for admin- 
istrative ability of a very high order, and inci- 
dentally brings about contacts and acquaintance- 
ships that put one in personal touch with all great 
national interests, whether business or political. 
The administrative problems that engage a uni- 
versity president's attention involve men of ex- 
ceptional ability and force, so that controversies, 
if they arise, are more than usually formidable. 

"Woodrow Wilson possesses in a singularly 
high degree the great administrative faculty of 
prompt apprehension of the true nature of a case, 
so as to disengage it from the irrelevant and 
adventitious and to guide discussion to sound 
conclusions. Whatever might be the matter com- 
ing up at faculty meetings, whether through a 
committee report or a casual motion, his mind 

[291] 



WOODROW WILSON 



seized it at once, stating the case clearly and 
bringing" out all its elements for consideration. 
At times he took an active part in debate. The 
speech he made in introducing the preceptorial 
system has become a faculty tradition as a model 
of perspicacity and force. His quickness of ap- 
prehension was also marked whenever he took 
part in a conference or was present at a commit- 
tee meeting. No matter how complicated the sub- 
ject, his mind seemed to bear effectively upon 
it at once, cutting into it like a circular saw into 
a knotty log. His apprehension extends to the 
viewpoints of all concerned, and he is particularly 
happy in removing differences by promoting 
better understanding. 

"This quickness of grasp and readiness of 
comprehension have been strikingly displayed 
during his administration as governor. During 
the legislative session, if he could get into confer- 
ence with the parties to a controversy, it was 
remarkable how rapidly he could analyze the 
situation, exhibit its elements, and suggest the 
solution. His dispatch of business is such that 
business never didves him. He seems always to 

[292] 



PERSONAL TRAITS 



have time to talk and to act with dehberation, 
whatever be the exigency, and wlien he is through 
he is tlirough. The art of hving on twenty-four 
hours a day w^as learned by him many years ago, 
and it stands him in good stead now. No man in 
public life keeps a cleaner desk or has clearer 
spaces of time for study and recreation in the 
intervals of official duty. 

*'The habitual cheerfulness and equanimity of 
his mind and his love of innocent fun are traits 
so persistent as to imply permanent moral 
foundations. It does not require much intimacy 
to discover what these consist of — namely, a deep 
religious faith, penetrating the whole nature of 
the man and informing all his acts. This is the 
source of that peace of mind which seems to make 
him immune to worry or trouble. He takes things 
as they come, makes the best of them, and abides 
the event with simple and complete resignation to 
the will of God. 

"The idealism that has now entered into phil- 
osophy from fuller knowledge of the implica- 
tions of the doctrine of evolution was long ago 
perceived and appropriated by Woodrow Wil- 

[293] 



WOODROW WILSON 



son. I remember once being with him at a gath- 
ering in one of the students' clubs at Princeton 
when the conversation drifted around to rehgion. 
We were grouped about a big fireplace and the 
talk had been of a desultory character, with a 
jocose element predominating, when some men- 
tion was made of Herbert Spencer. Wilson 
cau<xht the theme on the bound and before he was 
through with it he had turned Spencer's philoso- 
phic system inside out, exposing the inadequacy 
of materialism and vindicating the Christian 
creeds as being as valid symbols as sluj known 
to science. Although a member of the Presby- 
terian church by birthright and regular in his 
attendance, he does not talk on such subjects 
along denominational lines; but he is quick to 
assert his Christianity and to claim for its dogmas 
a perfectly secure basis in logic and philosoi^hy. 



>> 



The household described in the foregoing was 
in great measure dissolved after Woodrow Wil- 
son's translation to the White House. On June 
24, 1885, just about the time he began his career 
as an educator, he married JNIiss Helen Louise 

[294] 



PERSONAL TRAITS 



Axson of Savannah, Georgia, with whom he had 
become acquainted during his career as a young 
lawyer in Atlanta. They had three daughters 
who were arriving at the age when they might 
enter upon individual careers just as their father 
became a figure in national politics. The eldest 
daughter, who, in addition to being a vocalist 
whose natural gifts have been trained by study 
in New York, is also deeply interested in move- 
ments for social betterment, had indeed adopted 
her career when her father was elected President. 
The other daughters have been married since the 
family settled in Washington. Then came the 
death of Mrs. Wilson, which took place on 
August 6, 1914. Thus through death and by the 
natural changes wrought by time, Woodrow Wil- 
son, whose nature needs and craves domesticity, 
v/as left with a lonely hearth. His personal 
friends therefore heard with gratification of his 
intention to marry again. On December 18, 
1915, he was married to Mrs. Edith Gait, for- 
merly Miss BolHng of Wytheville, Virginia. 
The ceremony took place at the bride's home in 
Washington in the presence of a small company 

[295] 



WOODROW WILSON 



which included only immediate relatives and a 
few personal attendants of the bridal couple. 
The announcements sent out omitted all refer- 
ence to the official position of the groom and in 
ail the arrangements the wedding was treated as 
simply the private and personal affair which it 
was. 




CHAPTER XIII 

A MID-CAREER APPRECIATIO:Nr 

"OTHING more than a provisional esti- 
mate of Woodrow Wilson's career can be 
attempted now. The record is far from comj)lete. 
He is not yet sixty years of age and he is in the 
fullness of his mental powers and his working 
capacity. Although his term as President pre- 
sents a record of memorable achievement, it has 
been too short to complete much important work 
requiring attention. Indeed, not even a begin- 
ning has been made on one matter of inestimable 
importance in which he has long taken the great- 
est interest. One of the first expressions of his 
views made after his election to the presidency 
manifested his desire to act in the case and still 
he has not yet been able to get around to it. 
Under date of January 21, 1913, Senator Till- 
man wrote to him in regard to the wasteful and 
extravagant methods pursued in the enactment 

[297] 



WOODROW WILSON 



of appropriation bills. In his reply JNIr. Wilson 
wrote : 

"Ever since I was a youngster I have been 
deeply interested in our methods of financial leg- 
islation. Ever since then I have insisted upon 
the absolute necessity of a carefully considered 
and wisely j)lanned budget, and one of the objects 
I shall have most in mind when I get to Wash- 
ington will be conferences with my legislative 
colleagues there with a view of bringing some 
budget system into existence. . . ." 

Conferences on the subject took place during 
the past year at the instance of Congressional 
leaders, seeking a practical solution of a difficult 
problem but without any definite result so far. 
It cannot be doubted, however, that President 
Wilson will address himself to that subject as 
soon as an opportunity can be procured. jMean- 
while the case affords a signal instance of the 
spirit of trusteeship in which he applies himself 
to his tasks. This particular matter has domin- 
ated his thoughts and studies throughout his 
entire career as a publicist, from the time he 
published liis undergraduate essay on cabinet 

[298] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 

government. If he approached his (kitics in a 
doctrinaire spirit or took merely a pontifical view 
of his functions, it is quite certain, from his deep 
interest in the subject, that he would have given 
it the leading place in his communications to 
Congress. If this matter could be settled by ser- 
monizing, that would have been done long ago. 
It is generally admitted that the existing system 
—or rather lack of system and sheer chaos — is 
vicious and that it requires radical treatment, but 
budget reform deeply involves the relations be- 
tween the President and Congress, and, indeed, 
the whole character of the constitutional system. 
To attack such a problem upon no better basis 
than individual opinion and desire would be not 
merely futile but most probably mischievous. 

Woodrow Wilson regards his office as one of 
such power and responsibihty that inaction on 
public issues would be culpable, but he shows 
himself to be constantly mindful of the fact that 
the power is not an individual prerorgative but 
is derived from the representative value of the 
office. Although initiative is a Presidential duty, 
legislation is the special province of Congress 

[299] 



WOODROW WILSON 



and it is noticeable that while President Wilson 
makes an energetic use of the influence of his 
office to promote enactment, it is always in the 
exercise of his recognized function as the party 
leader. Acting in this capacity he can freely 
advise and deliberate with his party adherents in 
Congress. If distraction of sentiment or vacilla- 
tion of purpose enfeebles party policy in Con- 
gress he has an effective resource in that he is 
quite willing and able to appeal to public opinion 
so as to bring its instructions to bear upon the 
situation. Thus while he moves forcefully he 
moves cautiously, testing the ground for each step 
he takes, like an elephant crossing a bridge. 

In this particular case the pressure of events is 
making for radical reform. Lack of budget 
system is simply. one phase of the irresponsible 
government whose continuance was possible only 
during the period of our national isolation. A 
little over twenty years ago when James Bryce 
published his now classic treatise on "The Ameri- 
can Commonwealth," he observed that every 
European Power "must maintain her system of 
government in full efficiency for war as well as 

[300] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 



for peace, and cannot afford to let her armaments 
decline, her finances become disordered, the vigor 
of her executive's authority be impaired, sources 
of internal discord continue to prey upon her 
vitals. But America lives in a world of her own. 
Safe from attack, safe even from menace, she 
hears from afar the warring cries of European 
races and faiths, as the gods of Epicurus listened 
to the murmurs of the unhappy earth spread out 
beneath their golden dwelling." 

That period of immunity is at end. Since 
Bryce drew that idyllic picture the war with 
Spain was fought and now the United States has 
distant dependencies and possessions to manage 
and defend. She has become a world power in 
the scope of her interests and responsibilities. She 
is beginning to experience the pressure of the 
needs of subsistence and defense which have 
everywhere at some time presented to forms of 
government the alternative of developing effi- 
ciency or sinking into decay. 

President Wilson's address to Congress at the 
opening of the present session submitted a pro- 
gram of action whose legislative requirements 

[301] 



WOODROW WILSON 



with their incidental measures furnish matter 
enough for a presidential term. The subject of 
national defense was foremost, but in immediate 
and strictly logical connection came the subject 
of national subsistence. The President said: 

*'If other nations go to war or seek to hamper 
each other's commerce, our merchants, it seems, 
are at their mercy, to do with as they please. 
We must use their ships, and use them as they 
determine. We have not ships enough of our 
own. We cannot handle our own commerce on 
the seas. Our independence is provincial, and is 
only on land and within our own borders. We 
are not likely to be permitted to use even the ships 
of other nations in rivalry of their own trade, 
and are without means to extend our commerce 
even where the doors are wide open and our goods 
desired. Such a situation is not to be endured. 
It is of capital importance not only that the 
United States should be its own carrier on the 
seas and enjoy the economic independence which 
only an adequate merchant marine would give it, 
but also that the American hemisphere as a 
whole should enjoy a like independence and self- 

[302] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 



sufficiency, if it is not to be drawn into the tangle 
of European affairs. Without such independence 
the whole question of our political unity and self- 
determination is very seriously clouded and com- 
plicated indeed. 

"The task of building up an adequate merchant 
marine for America private capital must ulti- 
mately undertake and achieve, as it has under- 
taken and achieved every other hke task among 
us in the past, with admirable enterprise, intelli- 
gence, and vigor; and it seems to me a manifest 
dictate of wisdom that we should promptly re- 
move every legal obstacle that may stand in the 
way of this much to be desired revival of our 
old independence and should facilitate in every 
possible way the building, purchase, and Ameri- 
can registration of ships. But capital cannot 
accomplish this great task of a sudden. It must 
embark upon it by degrees, as the opportunities 
of trade develop. 

"Sometliing must be done at once; done to open 
routes and develop opportunities where they are 
as yet undeveloped; done to open the arteries of 
trade where the currents have not yet learned to 

[303] 



WOODROW WILSON 



run — especially between the two American con- 
tinents, where they are, singularly enough, yet to 
be created and quickened; and it is evident that 
only the Government can undertake such begin- 
nings and assume the initial financial risks. 
When the risk has passed and private capital 
begins to find its way in sufficient abundance into 
these new channels, the Government may with- 
draw. But it cannot omit to begin. It should 
take the first steps, and should take them at once. 
Our goods must not lie piled up at our ports and 
stored upon side tracks in freight cars which are 
daily needed on the roads ; must not be left with- 
out means of transport to any foreign quarter. 
We must not await the permission of foreign 
shipowners and foreign Governments to send 
them where we will." 

At the previous session of Congress, President 
Wilson recommended action on this matter and 
the House responded by passing a bill to enable 
the Government to get and use vessels in aid of 
trade. The bill was not passed by the Senate; 
neither was it rejected; but it was defeated by 
sheer obstruction, its opponents availing them- 

[304] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 

selves of the privileg'e of unlimited debate to pre- 
vent it from coming to vote. This feature of our 
constitutional system is a strange anomaly — the 
power of a minority to govern the country. It 
has since become known that arrangements had 
been made by which the Government could have 
obtained a fleet of vessels on favorable terms. 
That opportunity has since, of course, passed by. 
The event has, however, sharpened the issue be- 
tween public control of our national policy and 
private manipulation of it through the exercise 
of senatorial prerogative, w^hich must be settled 
before the democratic character of our Govern- 
ment is definitely established. 

An important feature of President Wilson's 
address was that in which he urged the necessity 
of mobilizing the industrial resources of the coun- 
try. He remarked: 

"While we speak of the preparation of the na- 
tion to make sure of her security and her effective 
power, we must not fall into the patent error of 
supposing that her real strength comes from 
armaments and mere safeguards of written law. 
It comes, of course, from her people, their energy, 

[305] 



WOODROW WILSON 



their success in their undertakings, their free op- 
portunity to use the natural resources of our 
great home land and of the lands outside our con- 
tinental borders which look to us for protection, 
for encouragement, and for assistance in their 
development ; from the organization and freedom 
and vitality of our economic life. . . . 

"It is the more imperatively necessary, there- 
fore, that we should promptly devise means for 
doing what we have not yet done : that we should 
give intelligent federal aid and stimulation to in- 
dustrial and vocational education, as we have 
long done in the large field of our agi'icultural 
industry, that at the same time that we safeguard 
and conserve the natural resources of the country, 
we should put them at the disposal of those who 
will use them promptly and intelligently, as was 
sought to be done in the admirable bills submitted 
to the last Congress from its committees on the 
public lands, bills which I earnestly recommend 
in principle to your consideration ; that we should 
put into early operation some provision for rural 
credits which will add to the extensive borrowing 
facilities, already afforded the farmer by the Re- 

[306] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 



serve Bank Act, adequate instrumentalities by 
which long credits may be obtained on land mort- 
gages; and that we should study more carefully 
than they have hitherto been studied the right 
adaptation of our economic arrangements to 
changing conditions." 

The concluding portion of this pregnant ad- 
dress brought up a most copious topic, the trans- 
portation problem. He suggested the desirabil- 
ity of an inquiry into its factors, carried on with 
as great thoroughness as the inquiry into finan- 
cial conditions that paved the way for currency 
reform. President Wilson made it plain that 
there was to be no backward step. 

"The question is not what should we undo. It 
is, whether there is anything else we can do that 
would supply us with effective means, in the very 
process of regulation, for bettering the condi- 
tions under wliich the railroads are operated and 
for making them more useful servants of the 
country as a whole. It seems to me that it might 
be the part of wisdom, therefore, before further 
legislation in this field is attemj^ted, to look at 
the whole problem of coordination and efficiency 

[307] 



WOODROW WILSON 



in the full light of a fresh assessment of circum- 
stance and opinion, as a guide to dealing with the 
several parts of it. 

"For what we are seeking now, what in my 
mind is the single thought of this message, is 
national efficiency and security. . . ." 

It will help to understand this movement if it 
is observed that a decided change of attitude to- 
ward public control has taken place among rail- 
road managers. The elements of the problem 
will be better appreciated if the situation in this 
country is compared with that in other countries. 
The stringency of control that exists in Europe 
has been criticized as unsuitable to the United 
States because of its vast area, comparatively 
sparse population, and undeveloped resources, 
but all these conditions apply even more heavily 
in the case of our next door neighbor, Canada. 
And yet a system of complete and undisputed 
control may be found there. A Canadian com- 
mon carrier has no power of its own motion either 
to make or alter a rate, but must first apply to 
public authority for the privilege. Powder to con- 
demn property is limited to a narrow right-of- 

[308] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 



way strip and when private property is sought 
for terminal facilities or station buildings, expro- 
priation proceedings must be instituted before 
public authority. The proportion of capitaliza- 
tion and debentures to length of line and extent 
of equipment is also regulated by public author- 
ity. In the United States the practice has been 
to turn over to the railway corporations the state's 
power of eminent domain, by general grants for 
use in their own discretion. Issues of stocks and 
bonds have been determined by railway managers 
according to their own notions of duty and con- 
venience, with the result that the field of railway 
management has been invaded by practices which 
are not morally distinguishable from ordinary 
swindling. The abuses that have appeared 
prompted long ago a demand for legal remedy, 
but instead of instituting control all that was 
done was to create a commission with powers of 
interference. It is now recognized that railroad 
managers made a capital blunder in opposing 
public regulation and in exerting their influence 
to minimize its power and extent. It is obvious 
that the effective control which exists in Canada 

[309] 



WOODROW WILSON 



has not hindered raih'oad development in that 
country. On the contrary it has gone on with 
amazing celerity, in anticipation of the prospec- 
tive development of the interior. Moreover the 
popular hostility to corporations, so marked in 
the United States, is absent in Canada. In sub- 
mitting themselves unreservedly to public control 
the corporations enjoy a corresponding protec- 
tion which facilitates all their tasks of manage- 
ment. The climate of good will in v/liich they 
flourish and expand is in striking contrast to the 
rancor and distrust that clog corporation man- 
agement in the United States. Things have 
reached such a pass that railway managers who 
perform their functions in a spirit of trusteeship 
and not merely with a sense of private oppor- 
tunity have now become desirous of a system of 
control that will relieve them of the necessity of 
maintaining legislative lobbies and paying black- 
mail to politicians, and that will fortify corpora- 
tion credit by governmental warrant of the good 
faith of proposed issues. The time seems ripe for 
a comprehensive treatment of what is probably 
the most intricate and difficult problem of Amer- 

[310] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 

ican politics, and it must be reckoned one of 
President Wilson's greatest achievements that he 
has managed to put this matter in line for thor- , 
ough treatment. 

In addition to the important subjects proposed 
for action by his opening address, another topic 
of the first rank came up during the session. 
European developments have plainly indicated 
that hereafter the United States will have to ad- 
just its industrial activities to an environment 
very different from that which has existed here- 
tofore. Arrangements are making among the 
nations to mobilize industry and to seize trade 
by means admitting of such prompt and ener- 
getic action. Without the development of new 
faculties with which to meet the new conditions, 
the United States would be like a huge but un- 
wieldy dinosaur among hungry lions. To meet 
this situation President Wilson proposes the crea- 
tion of a permanent tariff commission to keep 
watch upon conditions and to suggest the proper 
means to uphold, protect, and defend American 
interests. 

The question has been raised, whether Presi- 

[311] 



WOODROW WILSON 



dent Wilson is available for reelection, however 
desirable his services might be to the nation in 
carrying to fruition the work he has begun. It 
is well known that there is nothing in the Consti- 
tution of the United States to prohibit reelection. 
That matter was pondered by the framers of the 
Constitution and they decided in favor of con- 
tinued eligibility. The estabhshed political tra- 
dition is that one good term deserves another. 
But the Democratic national platform of 1912 
contained a plank in favor of limiting the Presi- 
dent to a single term. Wilson had nothing to 
do with that action and w as not consulted about 
it. But it so happened that application was made 
to him for his views on the subject before he took 
office. His reply, which discusses the subject on 
its merits, is too important a document to be 
abridged, and it will be found in full as an appen- 
dix to this volume. 

Although it is too soon for a reckoning of the 
achievements of Woodrow Wilson's career as a 
statesman, yet one is on ground that is definitely 
settled in considering his character. Here at 
least is something that stands forth in the vicis- 

[312] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 

situdes of the period as that which is fixed, cer- 
tain, and complete. The cause of its marked ex- 
cellence as an instrument of public service is evi- 
dently this : that it exhibits one of those rare con- 
j unctions of great intelligence with great force 
of character, whose advent to power makes an 
epoch in the life of a nation. When such a 
combination appears on the scene everything 
changes; di^ift is succeeded by direction, oppor- 
tunism by management ; and routine is varied by 
fresh initiative and new purpose. The combina- 
tion occurs rarely, for great intelligence is not 
usually associated with great strength of char- 
acter. Fine intelligence is apt to be in the main 
the product of vision and sensibihty, and these 
are generally accompanied by variability of mood 
and a tenderness of feeling disinclining one for 
rough encounters. Everyone knows how unre- 
liable clever people may be. On the other hand, 
great strength of character is apt to be accom- 
panied by a degree of obtuseness and insensibil- 
ity. As a political staple, character is far more 
important than intelligence, and in a sound con- 
stitutional system, power will prefer solidity of 

[313] 



WOODROW WILSON 



character to all other qualifications. But the 
great readjustments that must take place in the 
affairs of nations if they are to retain their health 
and vigor, seem to be contingent upon the ap- 
pearance of a statesman in whom intellectual dis- 
cernment and strength of character are united. 
Pitt, Cavour, and Bismarck are examples of the 
type furnished by modern history. A marked 
characteristic of the type is modesty. That is a 
quality imparted by the intelligence, but it is an 
element that promotes freedom of action, for 
there is no humiliation for humility. Its ac- 
tivity is essentially instrumental, and gains its 
ends not by imperiousness but through ability to 
serve. Not until the account is made up and 
events are seen in their historical perspective can 
it be said where Woodrow Wilson will stand in 
this class, but he certainly belongs to it. He is 
a statesman of this rare type, and this is the ex- 
planation of his power. It is not uncommon in 
state politics to pick for governor some man of 
civic distinction but political inexperience, usually 
with the result that his position in his own admin- 
istration is merely that of a figure-head. Just 

[314] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 



such an expectation was undoubtedly entertained 
in respect of Wilson, and his great intelligence 
alone would not have secured him against that 
destiny. There is much truth in Selden's saying 
that no man is the wiser for his learning. The 
basis of Wilson's success is the hard, strong, reso- 
lute, courageous character that was born in him; 
but having that character such circumstances as 
that it was engined by great knowledge and pro- 
pelled by great intelligence made it the most 
forceful and efficacious instrument of popular 
rule that has been developed in American politics 
for many years. Its energetic strokes are mak- 
ing a great chapter of our history. 

With this extraordinary capacity for public 
service, which is his distinguishing characteristic 
as a statesman, there was associated a fullness of 
opportunity that seems somehow to belong to 
the type. It has a way of making its appearance 
when old ways are breaking down, when exist- 
ing methods are found to be inadequate, and 
when there seems to be an exhaustion of the re- 
sources of statesmanship. At the time Wood- 
row Wilson entered politics the ship of state 

[315] 



WOODROW WILSON 



seemed to have become a derelict, swinging on 
the tides and veering with the winds, but incapa- 
ble of settled course and direction. A poignant 
instance of this is afforded by the many years of 
uncertainty, irresolution, and futility character- 
izing the treatment of the currency question. It 
seemed that nothing could be done that could not 
be arranged by truck and dicker among particu- 
lar interests. To digest plans for the public wel- 
fare and bring them to determination seemed to 
be beyond the ability of the Government. Both 
friends and foes agree to the proposition that 
Woodrow Wilson has changed all that, and that 
decision and energy have been infused into the 
conduct of public affairs. 

Events are still too near and details are too 
incompletely known to admit of a computation of 
constitutional results, but it is at least perfectly 
plain that standards of official duty have been 
established that must affect the behavior of his 
successors. The great defect of our constitution 
in the present stage of its development is the 
opportunity it affords for avoidance of respon- 
sibility. Under both the English and the Swiss 

[316] 



A MID-CAREER APPRECIATION 

system it is the recognized duty of the adminis- 
tration not merely to say that something ought 
to be done, but to prepare and state the means 
of doing it. But in the past we have allowed 
presidents to pass the responsibility on to Con- 
gress, while in its turn, and with greater justice, 
the Congress may lay the responsibility on the 
President. His position is essentially one of such 
power and responsibility that it is impossible to 
make it inert. A President may resolve to be 
entirely neutral on a pending measure, but never- 
theless his office will exert a tremendous influence 
through his very inactivity. Senator John Sher- 
man in his "Memoirs" ascribed the passage of the 
Silver Purchase Act to the fact that the Congres- 
sional leaders were unable to learn from the then 
President what action he would take on silver 
coinage, and hence they resorted to a compromise 
measure. Thus a President who apparently did 
nothing in reality started a train of events that 
culminated in a desolating financial panic. The 
strongest argument in favor of closer relations 
between Congress and the President is that it 
will subject the President to a sharper and more 

[317] 



WOODROW WILSON 



exacting responsibility for the proper discharge 
of his functions. But meanwhile the terms of his 
oath of office and the injunctions of the Consti- 
tution should be enough to apprise any man of 
honor and courage who takes office as President 
of the United States that he cannot acquit him- 
self of his obligations merely by requesting Con- 
gress to take matters into consideration. It is 
his duty to take an active part in shaping the 
details of legislation, in promoting action, and 
in enforcing party discipline. In all these mat- 
ters Woodrow Wilson has set such high stand- 
ards of constitutional propriety, and he has es- 
tablished such cogent precedents, that the char- 
acter of the presidential office will be permanently 
affected. Our constitutional system is yet to be 
fully democratized, has yet to attain its final form. 
When the time comes for history to display the 
process, Woodrow Wilson's Administration will 
figure as the beginning of a new era. 



APPENDIX 

THE PLACE OF THE PRESIDENT IN OUR POLITICAL 

SYSTEM 

AFTER the presidential election of 1912, but be- 
fore Woodrow Wilson had assumed the presi- 
dential office, he was consulted by Representative A. 
Mitchell Palmer of Pennsylvania with respect to amend- 
ing the Constitution so as to make an elected incum- 
bent of the presidential office ineligible for reelection. 
In reply Mr. Wilson wrote the following letter : 

State of New Jersey, 

Executive Department, 

Feb. 13, 1913. 
My dear Palmer: 

Thank you warmly for your letter of Feb. 3. It 
was characteristically considerate of you to ask my 
views with regard to the joint resolution which has just 
come over from the House to the Senate with regard to 
the Presidential term. 

I have not hitherto said anything about this ques- 
tion, because I had not observed that the public was 
very much interested in it. I must have been mistaken 
in this, else the Senate would hardly have acted so 
promptly upon it. 

[319] 



APPENDIX 



It is a matter which concerns the character and 
conduct of the great office upon the duties of which I 
am about to enter. I feel, therefore, that in the present 
circumstances, I should not be acting consistently with 
my ideals with regard to the rule of entire frankness 
and plain speaking that ought to exist between public 
servants and the public whom they serve, if I did not 
speak out about it without reserve of any kind, and 
without thought of the personal embarrassment. 

The question is simply this : Shall our Presidents be 
free, so far as the law is concerned, to seek a second 
term of four years, or shall they be limited by constitu- 
tional amendment to a single term of four years, or 
to a single term extended to six years? 

I can approach the question from a perfectly imper- 
sonal point of view, because I shall most cheerfully 
abide by the judgment of my party and the public as 
to whether I shall be a candidate for the Presidency 
again in 1916. I absolutely pledge myself to resort to 
nothing but public opinion to decide that question. 

The President ought to be absolutely deprived of 
every other means of deciding it. He can be. I shall 
use to the utmost every proper influence within my 
reach to see that he is, before the term to which I have 
been elected is out. That side of the matter need dis- 
turb no one. 

And yet, if he is deprived of every other means of 

[320] 



APPENDIX 



deciding the question, what becomes of the argument 
for a constitutional limitation to a single term? The 
argument is not that it is clearly known now just how 
long each President should remain in office. Four years 
is too long a term for a President who is not the true 
spokesman of the people, who is imposed upon and 
does not lead. It is too short a term for a President 
who is doing or attempting a great work of reform and 
who has not had time to finish it. 

To change the term to six years would be to Increase 
the likehhood of its being too long, without any as- 
surance that it would, in happy cases, be long enough. 
A fixed constitutional limitation to a single term of of- 
fice is highly arbitrary and unsatisfactory from every 
point of view. 

The argument for it rests upon temporary conditions 
which can easily be removed by law. Presidents, it 
is said, are effective for one-half of their term only 
because they devote their attention during the last two 
years of the term to building up the influences, and 
above all the organization, by which they hope and 
purpose to secure a second nomination and election. 

It is their illicit power, not their legitimate influence 
with the country, that the advocates of a constitutional 
change profess to be afraid of, and I heartily sympa- 
thize with them. It is intolerable that any President 
should be permitted to determine who should succeed 

[321] 



APPENDIX 



him — ^himself or another — by patronage or coercion, 
or by any sort of control of the machinery by which 
delegates to the nominating convention are chosen. 

There ought never to be another Presidential nomi- 
nating convention; and there need never be another. 
Several of the States have successfully solved that dif- 
ficulty with regard to the choice of their Governors, 
and Federal law can solve it in the same way with re- 
gard to the choice of Presidents. The nominations 
should be made directly by the people at the polls. 

Conventions should determine nothing but party plat- 
forms, and should be made up of the men who would 
be expected, if elected, to carry those platforms into 
effect. It is not necessary to attend to the people's 
business by constitutional amendment if you will only 
actually put the business into the people's own hands, 

I think it may safely be assumed that that will be 
done within the next four years, for it can be done by 
statute ; it need not wait for constitutional change. 
That being done, the question of the Presidential term 
can be discussed on its merits. 

It must be clear to everybody who has studied our 
pohtical development at aU that the character of the 
Presidency is passing through a transitional stage. We 
know what the office is now and what use must be made 
of it ; but we do not know what it is going to work out 
into; and until we do know, we shall not know what 

[322] 



APPENDIX 



constitutional change, if any is needed, it would be best 
to make. 

I must speak with absolute freedom and candor in 
this matter, or not speak at all; and it seems to me 
that the present position of the Presidency in our actual 
system, as we use it, is quite abnormal and must lead 
eventually to something very different. 

He is expected by the nation to be the leader of his 
party as well as the chief executive officer of the Gov- 
ernment, and the country will take no excuses from him. 
He must play the part and play it successfully, or lose 
the country's confidence. He must be Prime Minister, 
as much concerned with the guidance of legislation as 
with the just and orderly execution of law; and he is 
the spokesman of the nation in everything, even the 
most momentous and most delicate dealings of the Gov- 
ernment with foreign nations. 

Why in such circumstances should he be responsible 
to no one for four long years? All the people's legisla- 
tive spokesmen in the House of Representatives and one- 
third of their representatives in the Senate are brought 
to book every two years ; why not the President, if he is 
to be the leader of the party and the spokesman of 
policy ? 

Sooner or later, it would seem, he must be made an- 
swerable to opinion in a somewhat more informal and 
intimate fashion — answerable, it may be, to the Houses 

[323] 



APPENDIX 



whom he seeks to lead, either personally or through a 
Cabinet, as well as to the people for whom they speak. 
But that is a matter to be worked out — as it inevitably 
will be — in some natural American way which we can- 
not yet even predict. 

The present fact is that the President is held re- 
sponsible for what happens in Washington in every 
large matter, and so long as he is commanded to lead 
he is surely entitled to a certain amount of power — all 
the power he can get from the support and convictions 
and opinions of his fellow countrymen ; and he ought to 
be suffered to use that power against his opponents un- 
til his work is done. It will be very difficult for him 
to abuse it. He holds it upon sufferance, at the pleasure 
of public opinion. Everyone else, his opponents in- 
cluded, has access to opinion, as he has. He must keep 
the confidence of the country by earning it, for he can 
keep it in no other way. 

Put the present customary limitation of two terms 
into the Constitution, if you do not trust the people 
to take care of themselves, but make it two terms (not 
one, because four years is often too long) and give the 
President a chance to win the full service by proving 
himself fit for it. 

If you wish to learn the result of constitutional ineli- 
gibility to reelection, ask any former Governor of New 
Jersey, for example, what the effect is In actual experi- 

[324] 



APPENDIX 



ence. He will tell you how cynically and with what 
complacence the politicians banded against him waited 
for the inevitable end of his term to take their chances 
with his successor. 

Constitutions place and can place no limitations 
upon their power. They may control what Governors 
they can as long as they please, as long as they can keep 
their outside power and influence together. They 
smile at the coming and going of Governors as some men 
in Washington have smiled at the coming and going 
of Presidents, as upon things ephemeral, which passed 
and were soon enough got rid of if you but sat tight 
and waited. 

As things stand now the people might more likely be 
cheated than served by further limitations of the Presi- 
dent's eligibility. His fighting power in their behalf 
would be immensely weakened. No one will fear a Presi- 
dent except those whom he can make fear the elections. 

We singularly belie our own principles by seeking to 
determine by fixed constitutional provision what the 
people shall determine for themselves and are perfectly 
competent to determine for themselves. We cast a 
doubt upon the whole theory of popular government. 

I believe that we should fatally embarrass ourselves 
if we made the constitutional change proposed; if we 
want our Presidents to fight our battles for us, we 
should give them the means, the legitimate means, the 

[325] 



APPENDIX 



means their opponents will always have. Strip them 
of everything else but the right to appeal to the people, 
but leave them that; suffer them to be leaders; abso- 
lutely prevent them from being bosses. 

We would otherwise appear to be going in two oppo- 
site directions. We are seeking in every way to extend 
the power of the people, but in the matter of the Presi- 
dency we fear and distrust the people and seek to bind 
them hand and foot by rigid constitutional provision. 
My own mind is not agile enough to go both ways. 

I am very well aware that my position on this ques- 
tion will be misconstrued, but that is a matter of per- 
fect indifference to me. The truth is much more im- 
portant than my reputation for modesty and lack of 
personal ambition. My reputation will take care of it- 
self, but constitutional questions and questions of policy 
will not take care of themselves without frank and fear- 
less discussion. 

I am not speaking for my own reelection ; I am speak- 
ing to redeem my promise that I would say what I 
really think on every public question and take my 
chances in the court of public opinion. 

WooDROw Wilson. 



INDEX 



Adams, John Quincy, 167. 

American Bankers Association, 
101. 

American Bar Association, 26. 

American constitutions, 129. 

Ancona, sinking of, 269. 

Arabic, sinking of, 269. 

Argentina offers mediation, 236. 

Association of Colleges and Pre- 
paratory Schools of Middle 
States, 48. 

Bagehot, Walter, 13, 54. 

Balfour, Premier, 246. 

Baltimore convention, 157-159. 

Boss rule, natural fruit of Amer- 
ican conditions, 108, 131; Wil- 
son's antagonism to, 128. 

Boy-Ed, Captain, expelled, 273. 

Brazil, offers mediation, 236. 

Bryan, W. J., resigns oflBce, 260. 

Bryce, Viscount, on American 
university presidents, 113; on 
American isolation, 300. 

Bryn Mawr College, 21, 22. 

Budget reform, 299-301. 

Business interests, influence of, 
on legislation, 190. 

Canada, parliamentary sessions 
in, 164; railroad legislation, 
308. 



Cannon, Speaker, revolt against, 
119; nature of rule of, 168. 

Carranza, General, Vera Cruz 
turned over to, 238. 

Caucus, seat of political author- 
ity, 167; action of, on currency 
bill, 204. 

Chile, offers mediation, 236. 

Civic League of St. Louis, 107. 

Classical studies, 38, 40. 

Clayton Anti-trust Act, 194. 

Cleveland, Grover, 65. 

Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, 
100. 

Columbia (S. C.) Theological 
Seminary, 5. 

Commission Plan, made option- 
al in New Jersey, 143. 

Committee on Rules, its powers, 
169. 

Congress, its methods and char- 
acteristics, 14, 71, 84, 90-97, 
110, 112, 166, 170, 178-181, 190, 
198, 242, 299, 304, 316. 

Corporation management, public 
regulation of, 100, 105, 117, 
122, 126, 152, 192-194. 

Currency reform, Wilson's dis- 
claimer of expert knowledge 
on, 159; the situation on, con- 
fronting Wilson, 195-210; op- 
position of banking interests 



[327] 



INDEX 



to, 206; features of the meas- Industrial conditions, legislation 
ure on, enacted, 208. i on, 192. 

International Congress of Edu- 

Democratic Overlords, the, 131. interstate Trade Commission, 
Dumba, Ambassador, expelled, ^^^ 
273. 



Economic problems, 77, 103. 

Economy and Efficiency Commis- 
sion, 151. 

Educational ideals, 35, 41, 49. 

Employers' Liability Law, 138. 

English constitutional system, 
316. 



Federal Reserve Act, see Cur- 
rency Reform. 

Fenn, Harry, 65. 

First Presbyterian Church of 
Augusta (Ga.), 5. 

First Presbyterian Church of 
Chillicothe, 4. 

First Presbyterian Church of 
Wilmington, N. C, 5. 

French revolutionary political in- 
fluence, 130. 

Gerard, Ambassador, 248. 
Guatemala, 239. 

Hamilton, Alexander, Pacificus 

letters of, 254. 
Hampden Sydney College, 4. 
Huerta, General, not recognized 

by Wilson, 231. 



Jefferson College, 3, 4. 

Johns Hopkins University, 20, 

23, 54. 
Jury reform, 153. 

Labor, Wilson's attitude to, 122. 

Lake Forest College, 23. 

Lamar, the late Justice, 7. 

Lansing, Robert, becomes Secre- 
tary of State, 260. 

Lee, General, 104. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 64, 106. 

Liquor traffic, Wilson's views as 
to, 141. 

Lobby, secret of power of, 131, 
148 ; attacked by Wilson, 185. 

Lusitania, sinking of, 268. 

Lyme, Conn., 124. 

McCombs, Wm. F., establishes 
Wilson campaign bureau, 156. 

Madison, James, 69. 

Maine, Sir Henry, 74. 

Merchant marine, 302, 304. 

Mexico, civil war in, 230-239. 

Moro country, improved condi- 
tions in, 224-226. 

Nassau Liteiary Magazine, 10. 
National banking system, 196. 



[328] 



INDEX 



New England Association of 
Colleges and Preparatory 
Schools, 33. 

New Jersey, Democratic conven- 
tions, 121, 149; policy as to 
corporations in, 126; state con- 
stitution of, 130; struggle in, 
over election to U. S. Senate, 
133; reform program in, 137; 
employers' liability law in, 
138; reforms enacted in, 140; 
proposed revision of legislative 
rules in, 149; peculiar electoral 
arrangements in, 150. 

New Jersey Historical Society, 
62. 

Niagara Falls Conference, 237. 

Oglethorpe University, 5. 
Ollivier, Premier, 246. 

Page, Ambassador, 264. 

Palmer, Representative A. M., 
319. 

Pan-American Scientific Con- 
gress, 243. 

Papen, von, Captain, expelled, 
273. 

Party contributions from corpor- 
ations, 114. 

Party machinery, cause of its 
complexity, 167. 

Payne, Chairman, on "jokers," 
177. 

Pennsylvania State Sabbath 
School Association, 50. 

Persia, sinking of the, 272. 



Philippine Commission recon- 
struction, 223. 

Philippines, situation in, 211-223; 
local opinion on policy of ad- 
ministration in, 227-229. 

Pitt, William, 245. 

Preceptorial system, genesis of, 
30; introduced at Princeton, 
46-48. 

Presbyterian Church, South, 5. 

President, the, duties and powers 
of, 17, 59, 83, 89, 165-171, 175, 
203, 299, 316, 319-326. 

Presidential election of 1912, 163. 

Princeton Theological Seminary, 
3. 

Princetonian, The, 10. 

Princeton University, 8, 18, 23, 
30, 34, 40, 41, 47, 53, 98, 113, 
124. 

Pyle, Howard, 65. 

Quezon, Hon. Manuel L., letter 
to, from Wilson, 223. 

Record, George L., political cate- 
chism of, 127; advises as to 
legislation, 135. 

Religion, 51, 52, 293. 

Republican Board of Guardians, 
131. 

Rights under international law, 
239-242. 

Rural credits, 306. 

Separation of the powers, eflFect 
on American politics, 129. 



[329] 



INDEX 



Seven Sisters, the, group of re- 
form measures, 153. 

Shaw, Albert, 280. 

Sherman, Senator John, 317. 

Shorthand, used by Wilson, 69, 
99. 

Southern Society of New York, 
102. 

Southwestern Presbyterian Uni- 
versity, 5. 

State Rights, 80. 

Steubenville Male Academy, 3. 

Switzerland, legislative process 
in, 170, 180, 316. 

Taft, President, intervenes in 
tariff making, 178; on the Moro 
peril, 227. 

Tampico, our flag insulted at, 
236. 

Tariff Commission, visits Atlan- 
ta, 19. 

Tariff revision, the legislative 
process, 110, 177-179; Wilson's 
views on, 161 ; urged upon Con- 
gress, 171; draft of bill sub- 
mitted to Wilson, 182; bill 
passed by Congress, 184; ex- 
pert opinion on its merits, 187. 

Taussig, Professor F. W., on our 
tariff history, 177, 185, 187-190. 

Tillman, Senator, 297. 

Tobacco, 85. 

Transportation problem, 307, 
308, 310. 

Trust regulation, see Corpora- 
tion control. 

Tulane University, 23. 



Underwood, Chairman, 184. 
University of North Carolina, 

104. 
University of Virginia, 18. 

Vera Cruz, occupied, 236. 
Vest, Senator, on legislative 

blackmail, 180. 
Virginia State Bar Association, 

87. 

Warner, Charles Dudley, 64. 

War zone, German proclamation 
of, 265. 

Washington, President, personal 
traits of, Q5; relations of, with 
Congress, 166, 171; neutrality 
policy of, 254; farewell ad- 
dress of, 260. 

Wesleyan University, 22. 

West, the, historical significance 
of, 64. 

Western Theological Seminary, 3. 

Whig Hall, joined by Wilson, 10. 

WilliaTn P. Frye, American ship, 
262. 

Wilson, James, Ulster emigrant, 
1; Ohio editor, 2; grandfather 
of Woodrow Wilson, 3. 

Wilson, Joseph Ruggles, son of 
James, 2; career as minister 
and educator, 2-4; father of 
Woodrow Wilson, 4; death of, 
5. 

Wilson, Woodrow, ancestry, 1-4; 
childhood, 6; education, 7-18; 
matriculates at Princeton, 8; 
record for scholarship, 9; edits 



[330] 



INDEX 



college periodicals, 10; essay 
on "Cabinet Government," 11- 
18; enters law school of Uni- 
versity of Virginia, 18; begins 
law practice at Atlanta, 19; 
enters Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity, 20; joins faculty of Bryn 
Mawr College, 21; called to 
Wesley an University, 22 ; called 
to Princeton University, 23; 
elected president of Princeton, 
2S; addresses: on educational 
topics, 23-52; on professional 
education, 24, 26; on relation 
of university training to citi- 
zenship, 27, 42; conceives the 
preceptorial system, 30, 46-48; 
on science and culture, 31-33, 
38; on spurious vs. real patri- 
otism, 33; Princeton inaugural 
address, 34-40; principles of 
educational control, 40, 48; 
Princeton system of group 
elections, 40, 41; classroom 
methods, 47, 48; views on re- 
ligion, 51 ; literary activities, 
53; essay on "Committee or 
Cabinet Government," 54 ; trea- 
tise on "Congressional Govern- 
ment," 54 ; literary methods, 56 ; 
political and literary essays, 
57; textbook on government, 
57; views on the relations be- 
tween President and Congress, 
59; historical writings, 61; 
criticizes New England school 
of history, 62; on the West 
as a national factor, 64; his 



studies of Washington's career, 
65; his estimate of Cleveland's 
career, 66; essay on the mak- 
ing of the nation, 69; essay 
on "Being Human," 73; es- 
say on Sir Henry Maine, 74; 
essay on "Reconstruction," 76; 
his "History of the American 
People," 76; treatise on "State 
Rights," 76; essay on a half- 
century of American politics, 
77; essay on "The States and 
the Federal Government," 80; 
treatise on "Constitutional Gov- 
ernment in the United States," 
82; his views of presidential 
function, 83, 88; his oratorical 
method, 86, 100; his views on 
governmental structure, 88, 108 ; 
as to the Senate, 92 ; his use of 
shorthand, 99; views on prob- 
lem of corporation control, 
100, 105, 117, 122, 126,152,162; 
on the banking function, 102; 
address on the political issues 
of the times, 102; address on 
Abraham Lincoln, 107; exami- 
nation of the Payne-Aldrich 
tariff bill, 110; speech on Dem- 
ocratic party principles, 115; 
movement to nominate him for 
governor of New Jersey, 119; 
becomes a receptive candidate, 
120; nominated, 121; defines 
his attitude to organized labor, 
122 ; speech accepting the nom- 
ination, 125; his answers to a 
political catechism, 127 ; pledges 



[331] 



INDEX 



war on boss-rule, 128; involved 
in a faction war, 132; active 
in promoting legislation, 135; 
participates in legislative cau- 
cus, 137; measures enacted 
during his administration, 
140; his veto messages, 141; 
position on local option issue, 
141 ; constitutional principles 
asserted by him, 143; views on 
relations of executive and leg- 
islature, 146; advocates an 
economy and eflBlciency com- 
mission, 151; advocates regula- 
tion of corporations, 153; pro- 
motes jury reform, 154; be- 
comes candidate for President, 
155; declines state convention 
indorsement, 156; puts himself 
in opposition to national ex- 
ecutive committee, 158; nomi- 
nated for President, 159; his 
speech of acceptance, 159-163; 
elected President, 163 ; his cabi- 
net appointments, 165; revives 
"Washington's practice of oral 
address to Congress, 171; his 
inaugural address, 171-174 ; 
convokes Congress in extra 
session, 175; tariif revision 
urged by special message, 182; 
passage of tariff bill, 184; di- 
rects public attention to lobby 
machinations, 185; addresses 
Congress on business and in- 
dustrial conditions, 192; advo- 
cates currency reform, 199- 
203; participates in legislative 



process, 203; refuses to accept 
any compromise, 206; his Phil- 
ippine policy, 223-229; his 
Mexican policy, 231-235, 239- 
242; orders occupation of Vera 
Cruz, 236; accepts South 
American mediation, 237; his 
Pan-American policy, 244; is- 
sues neutrality proclamation, 
247; offers his good offices to 
belligerents, 247; appealed to 
by European rulers, 249; ad- 
dress to American people on 
war issues, 250; extremes meet 
in opposition to his policy, 252 ; 
precedents followed by him, 
256-359; resignation of Secre- 
tary Bryan, 260; diplomatic 
controversies with belhgerents, 
262-272 ; German submarine 
warfare modified in deference 
to his demands, 271; vindica- 
tion of neutral rights, 272; 
message to Congress on intes- 
tine foes, 273; on national pre- 
paredness, 277; personal traits, 
280-295; his household, 294- 
296; his deep interest in budget 
reform, 298; urges government 
action to establish a merchant 
marine, 302; advocates indus- 
trial and vocational education, 
306; advocates rural credits, 
306; discusses the transpor- 
tation problem, 307-310; pro- 
poses a permanent tariff com- 
mission, 311; letter on the 
presidential term, 312, 319; an 



[332] 



INDEX 



appreciation of his statesman- 
ship, 312-318. 

Woodrow, Miss Janet, marries 
Joseph R. Wilson, 3; mother 
of Woodrow Wilson, 4. 

Woodrow, Rev. Dr. Thomas, ma- 



ternal grandfather of Wood- 
row Wilson, 3, 4. 
Worcester, Dean C, on Moro 
peril, 327. 

Yale University, 23. 



:(i): 



( 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 900 887 A 



iH 'JP >r. »\ w- w. 



ft >, W W t . K ''-'^ 









X » r- 



- ^ •' n ^•. iV * ,^ ,- 



v^'w'^itt M, ^ ^4 )*4 ./* /H M„.n / 



